FOI – are you ready? - Enterprise Information

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posted 21 Feb 2005

FOI – are you ready?

Requests for information have already started to pour in as people demand their rights under both the UK’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and the Environmental Information Regulations (EIR). Public bodies had four years to prepare for the FOIA but many feel ill prepared, blaming late guidance from central government.

FOI blogger Steve Wood told Enterprise Information magazine, “The introduction has been patchy – there are some very well-prepared authorities and some very poorly prepared. The problems lie with late guidance from the Department of Constitutional Affairs and lack of senior commitment and resourcing at the public authority level. There are some councils with a lot of work to do plus parts of the education sector. The police are the best example of a well prepared approach.” Wood has just launched an open access peer reviewed journal on Open Government and Freedom of Information (www.opengovjournal.org).

Alan Stead, service manager of Information Management at Nottingham City Council, says the council had received 60 requests for information under the FOIA and the EIR, less than three weeks after the FOIA came into force. “For a local authority that is quite high,” he says. “Requests have come mainly from national and local press and action groups. People had requested information about the proposed routes for trams in Nottingham and care parking matters,” he adds.

A representative for the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) says figures for the number and type of requests will not be kept centrally as there are about 2,000 public bodies affected by the FOIA, but it will log all complaints. The role of the ICO is to enforce the new law; people who have had requests for information denied can complain to the office if they feel the denial was unjustified.

The ICO will promote the FOIA to ensure everyone knows his or her rights and responsibilities, which, in theory, should reduce the number of subsequent complaints. However, Phil Boyd, the assistant information commissioner, warns, “What happened in Ireland is illustrative of what happens if there is too much publicity – you get an enormous amount of requests early on. The information commissioner in Ireland got into an immediate, huge backlog, which in turn led to the slapping on of some quite significant charges for requests for information.”

According to the ICO, early requests for information have included requests for environmental information, requests for more detailed information about school league tables and regional development plans. There have also been requests for information about people who have died.

The media has been quick to request information under the new legislation and there are concerns about the risks inherent in disclosing some information. David Kinnaird, head of compliance practice at BT, echoes the views of many saying, “The thing people will want to see is e-mail. That information created informally can sometimes reveal more about what is going on in a public authority than a formally published document would do. That does represent the biggest risk for most public authorities.”

However, one observer hinted at loopholes that may be employed by public bodies: “FOI law says that information may not be knowingly withheld, so information contained in an e-mail could be overlooked. And the Environmental Information Regulations have an exemption for internal communications.”

Stead points out that perhaps the greatest risk to councils posed by the FOIA is to the operation of the organisation. “If we are spending two days finding information, that member of staff might be better employed providing services. Nottingham County Council is recruiting staff to help answer requests for information. The other major risks the council identified were posed by its lack of a records-management system and the need for a file maintenance policy.”

Records management and document integrity and compliance have become critical issues and IT solutions suppliers have been keen to help the public sector update their systems. However, Maurice Frankel, director of the Campaign for Freedom of Information, says, “Lots of people are selling systems, but it is not an IT problem unless handling the number of requests becomes overwhelming. If people don’t want to do it, IT won’t solve your problem.” He advises, “Avoid IT decisions for 12 months and see where the demand is.”

Frankel points out the real risk: “The worst consequence is to ignore the request being made or respond in an unhelpful way because they have misinterpreted the Act. It will appear to the applicant that the authority is actively resisting disclosure and they will go to the information commissioner.” And Richard Thomas, the information commissioner, is taking no excuses: “I will not be sympathetic to bodies that have not made good use of the four year lead in time. Excuses such as lack of time or poor records-management systems will not wash.”