2 First year of FOI implementation
5. The Information Commissioner estimated that between
100,000 and 130,000 requests had been made under the Act during
2005. There is no single count of the total number of requests
made throughout the public sector, but for example DCA statistics
show that around 38,000 requests were received by central government
departments.[2] Local authorities
indicated that they had received around 70,000 requests and the
police service around 21,000.[3]
6. Research commissioned by the Information Commissioner's
Office (ICO) showed that the types of information requested most
frequently under FOI included statistics about the organisation,
information about the decisions it made and spending and contract
details.[4] Snapshots
of media coverage generated by FOI and given to us by the ICO
contained references to hundreds of media articles illustrating
the breadth and volume of information released in 2005. Examples
included:
- Percentages required for school
and university exam pass grades;
- Hygiene reports for restaurants, hotels and school
kitchens;
- Detail on progress towards Government efficiency
targets, including the number of redundancies made since the cost-cutting
drive was launched;
- Information about events leading to faulty TB
vaccines being given to nearly one million children;
- Comparative regional figures for knife and alcohol
related crime; and,
- Public authority spending on consultants' fees.
7. The Information Commissioner told us that in his
view FOI was working and that the FOI Act had made a significant
impact across the whole of the public sector:
large numbers of requests are being made and
I find it very reassuring that the majority are coming from members
of the public. It is not just, as some had predicted, the media
or pressure groups; members of the public are heavy users of the
Act. A very wide range of information is now coming into the public
domain which would not have been disclosed without freedom of
information.[5]
8. The DCA stated that there had been some very significant
releases across central government, and that 'Local authorities
and local service providers are releasing information of real
value to people's daily lives, public services and the environment.'[6]
9. Users of the Act who provided evidence were also
positive. Maurice Frankel , Director of the Campaign for Freedom
of Information, told us that:
I am very pleasantly surprised by the amount
of information that has come out and the importance of a lot of
it…I think that we have a worthwhile, important piece of
legislation and it is functioning at the moment.[7]
10. The Act has clearly been of use to journalists.
David Hencke, from the Guardian, stated 'I have been very surprised
and pleased with parts of this Act.'[8]
A written submission from the BBC stated that:
Since January 2005 numerous journalists and programme-makers
from across different parts of the BBC have sought to make use
of the FOI Act and the Environmental Information Regulations to
research material for broadcast. The information obtained has
led to a wide range of investigative reports. FOI has proved a
useful tool enabling our journalists to put into the public domain
material which should indeed be there.[9]
11. Several witnesses provided examples of the constructive
use being made of information received. The National Council for
Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) reported that voluntary and community
organisations were using the Act to find out how public bodies
arrived at decisions.[10]
The BBC listed a number of investigative reports to which information
obtained via FOI had made a significant contribution.[11]
The reports covered an impressive range of subjects including
performance of schools, internal police guidelines, food hygiene
inspections and safety issues at a nuclear power station. The
DCA's examples of significant new releases included details of
individual Common Agricultural Policy subsidies paid to farmers
and historical information from the 1980s and 1990s relating to
nuclear waste storage, the UK withdrawal from the Exchange Rate
Mechanism and the Falklands conflict.[12]
12. The National Archives stated that:
50,000 records were proactively released by government
departments and made publicly available at the National Archives
on the first working day of FOI in January 2005. There records
included…information ranging from research at Porton Down
to arranged marriages…Home Office files on reviewing gambling
laws and the classification of cannabis.[13]
The evidence from the National Archives highlighted
the value of FOI to academic researchers:
Scholars have new resources to understand and
explain decisions taken within government. No longer is it necessary
to wait for 30 years for major parts of this country's history
to be written. Academic researchers are beginning to exploit the
new opportunities for research that have been opened up by a combination
of the FOI Act and the increasing availability of information
online, although it may be a few years before the impact on research
trends and patterns can be fully discerned.[14]
13. It is clear to us that the implementation
of the FOI Act has already brought about significant and new releases
of information and that this information is being used in a constructive
and positive way by a range of different individuals and organisations.
We have seen many examples of the benefits resulting from this
legislation and are impressed with the efforts made by public
authorities to meet the demands of the Act. This is a significant
success.
14. Notwithstanding this success, we also found that
the quality of compliance was variable. The BBC told us that 'Overall,
the experience of BBC journalists and programme-makers who have
tried to use FOI is that the response of public authorities is
patchy and inconsistent, ranging from those who are highly efficient
and cooperative to those who are neither.'[15]
Other concerns raised by witnesses related to delays and inadequate
complaints resolution. We go on to consider these problems in
the following chapters.
2 www.dca.gov.uk/foi Back
3
www.dca.gov.uk/foi; Qq126 and 127 Back
4
www.ico.gov.uk Back
5
Q2 Back
6
Ev 44, para 3.5 Back
7
Q104 Back
8
Q104 Back
9
Ev 81, para 2 Back
10
Ev 80, para 4.3 Back
11
Ev 82-83, para 10 Back
12
Ev 44, para 3.4 Back
13
Ev 58, para 1 Back
14
Ev 58, para 1 Back
15
Ev 83, para 19 Back
|
