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Using FoI
144/Maurice Frankel
Director of the Campaign for Freedom of Information, Maurice Frankel, on how to use the Freedom of Information Act
After a four year delay, the Freedom of Information Act has finally come into force. The new right of access applies to government departments, councils, NHS bodies, schools and universities, the police, the armed forces, quangos, regulators, publicly owned companies, the BBC and Channel 4 (but not to journalistic materials), the devolved assemblies and Parliament itself. The security services and courts are not covered.
The right is retrospective and applies to any recorded information held by an authority, regardless of its age. You no longer have to wait 30 years to see old government records.
To obtain information apply in writing or by email to the authority concerned. Your request will be valid even if you don’t mention the FOI Act, though it’s a good idea to do so. Send it to the authority’s FOI officer - details should be on its website - or to the official handling the issue, if you know who that is. Journalists can use, or bypass, the press office, depending on their preference.
The authority must reply "promptly" and in any case within 20 working days. A further 10 working days is allowed for requests to the National Archives. A "reasonable" extension is also allowed where the authority has to consider disclosing exempt information under the Act’s "public interest" test.
If a government department can find the information, extract it from the files and carry out any necessary editing for less than £600, access will be free apart from photocopying, printing and postage costs. But if the cost exceeds this limit, an authority is not obliged to provide the information at all.
The £600 limit is calculated at a fixed rate of £25 an hour, equal to about three and a half days work. Crucially, the time spent deciding whether the information has to be disclosed can’t be included in this calculation. For all other public authorities, the limit is £450 or about two and a half days work.
The trick will be to resist the temptation to make sweeping "give me everything" requests and focus in on the specific information you need. Authorities are required to advise and assist applicants, and should help you identify the kinds of information that may be available. If your request does cost too much they should tell you what information they could release without exceeding the limit. You probably won’t get away with breaking a large request down into several smaller ones as the costs of such requests can be aggregated.
There are numerous exemptions though most require even exempt information to be disclosed if the public interest in openness outweighs the public interest in confidentiality. Some apply only if disclosure would ‘prejudice’ interests such as defence, international relations, law enforcement or commercial interests. The test under separate Scottish FOI Act is whether disclosure would "substantially prejudice" these interests, making it harder to withhold information.
Certain exemptions give weight to the "reasonable opinion" of a senior official, for example, on whether disclosure would harm the frankness of advice or "prejudice the effective conduct of public affairs". All information relating to the formulation of government policy, ministerial communications, legal advice and information obtained by police or prosecutors while investigating a possible offence is exempt. But in all these cases the information must still be disclosed unless the balance of public interest favours confidentiality rather openness. Exemptions also apply to personal data, breach of confidence, court records and other matters.
If you’re after environmental information, your request would be dealt with under new Environmental Information Regulations (EIRs) which implement a European directive. These provide a more powerful right of access than the FOI Act and apply not only to public authorities but also to environmental consultants or contractors working for them. Requests can be made orally as well as in writing, and are subject to their own set of exemptions. Notably, information about emissions to the environment cannot be withheld under the commercial confidentiality exemption.
If you think information has been improperly withheld, or want to challenge any other decision under the Act or EIRs the first step is to ask the authority to reconsider. Afterwards you are free to approach the Information Commissioner, who has the power to overturn the authority’s decision on exemptions and public interest and order disclosure.
Unfortunately, ministers have also insisted on a right of veto. This can be used if the Commissioner orders a government department to release information on public interest grounds. The veto cannot be kept secret and could be judicially reviewed. Whether ministers can resist using it, when politically sensitive information is at stake, remains to be seen.
Nevertheless the Act is a major step forward. If requesters are persistent in bringing cases to the Commissioner many long established traditions of secrecy may be overturned.
LINKSCampaign for the Freedom of Information
Last modified: Monday, March 14, 2005
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World Press Freedom Day
More reporters are currently imprisoned in Turkey than in any other country in the world. Only a matter of weeks ago lawyers failed to persuade a Turkish court to release a 76-year-old journalist from a Turkish internet news station.
World Press Freedom Day on Friday May 3, 2013 is being marked in Britain by a rally to highlight the dangers facing journalists in Turkey and in this podcast, Nicholas Jones speaks to Barry White, Organiser at the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom, and Sam Bamford, the TUC's policy officer for Eastern Europe and Africa about the importance of a campaign to highlight international press freedom.
The World Press Freedom Day rally is being staged by the National Union of Journalists at the NUJ head office, Gray’s Inn Road, London WC1 on Thursday May 2, 6pm-8pm.
DATELINE: 27/4/13
UK launch of EU media campaign
DATELINE: 13/3/13
The UK launch of a 'European Citizens' Initiative' calling for EU rules against concentration of media power will take place on Thursday March 21 from 11:00am – 12:30pm in Committee Room 4A at the House of Lords, London. Guest speakers will include actor and activist Hugh Grant (pictured), media consultant Claire Enders, Professor Steven Barnett, Barry McCall (President of the NUJ) and Marc Gruber (Director of the European Federation of Journalists).
A European Citizens' Initiative is an official petition, like a Downing Street petition. If it succeeds in gathering a million signatures across the EU, the Commission is obliged to respond.
This petition calls for the EU to act to protect media pluralism and press freedom.
CPBF Annual General Meeting
DATELINE: 1/3/13
Make a note in your diary
Saturday 13 July 2013 from 10.00am
NUJ HQ, 308/312 Gray's Inn Road, London WC1.
Leveson, media ownership, CPBF future work.
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DATELINE: 26/3/10
Download Freepress in PDF, ePub or mobi format. Issue 194 now available.
MEDIA FOR ALL CONFERENCE
DATELINE: 26/3/10
Papers from the Media for All Conference
MEDIA MANIFESTO
DATELINE: 26/3/10
The media’s job is to inform and entertain us but we rely on them too to tell us what our rulers and representatives are up to. In the run-up to the Iraq war the government used spin and disinformation in the media to create panic and mislead people. The truth is coming out now, but we need stronger, more independent media to be able to scrutinise governments and make informed choices.
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