Freedom of information ‘could be better’
The Freedom of Information Act is working, but there is considerable room for improvement, an influential committee of MPs has said.
The constitutional affairs committee today reports that, while valuable information has reached the public, in many cases the actions and attitudes of government departments have proved counter-productive.
“Freedom of information is clearly working, although there is room for improvement,” said Alan Beith, chairman of the constitutional affairs committee.
“However, our freedom of information legislation can only be as good as the quality of the records management it gives us access to, and only if people can get access to the information in a timely way.
“Long delays in accessing information or having complaints resolved go against both the spirit and the letter of the act, and must be resolved. Records management, and particularly digital records management, must be improved.”
The committee reports that it is concerned over the length of time it has taken to access information, with internal reviews holding up the process in a way that is “contrary to the spirit of the act”.
Additionally, the constitutional affairs committee finds that complaints were not satisfactorily resolved by the Information Commissioner’s Office in 2005, and questions if enough has been done to resolve this.
The committee questions the relationship between the Department of Constitutional Affairs and the Information Commissioner’s Office – recommending the commissioner becomes directly funded and accountable to parliament.
There are also concerns that digital information could be lost, as data degrades and technology moves on – “no satisfactory long term strategy has been implemented to manage this problem” the committee states.
Opposition parties also attacked the implementation of the Freedom of Information Act.
Conservatives see today’s report as confirmation that the government is trying to create new fees for requests.
“I fear that [the government] may be attempting to close down public scrutiny by introducing a new stealth tax for information. This should be strongly resisted,” said Oliver Heald, shadow secretary for constitutional affairs.
He is concerned that by counting ‘reading time’ by civil servants many more people could end up paying for information.
Currently requests for information are free, unless they cost more than £600 or £450 to respond to, depending on who the request is made to.
By counting reading time, the Conservatives fear that many more requests will cost over this limit.
