| Summary
This Report examines the Government's proposals for reform of the charging regime relating to Freedom of Information (FOI) requests. It also comments on the funding arrangements for the Information Commissioner.
The Freedom of Information Act 2000 was brought into force on 1 January 2005. We examined the preparations for implementation of the Act in 2004 and last year we reported on its first year of operation: Freedom of Information — one year on. The Government indicated last year that it planned to review the operation of the Act and has since commissioned a Review of the charging regime and published two consultation papers.
At the moment, there is a cost threshold, above which public authorities do not respond to Freedom of Information requests. The Government has proposed changes to the charging regime for Freedom of Information requests which would enable public authorities to attribute more of their time towards this limit and to aggregate a wider range of separate requests. The threshold would therefore be reached for a greater proportion of requests, giving authorities the ability to refuse requests more often.
We examined the Government's arguments for change and concluded that:
- The Government has not shown that it adequately reviewed whether the existing charging regime balanced public access rights with the needs of public authorities to deliver services effectively, before deciding to restrict public access rights further;
- We have not received sufficient evidence to support the need to change access rights in the way proposed;
- The cost-benefit analysis prepared by the Department for Constitutional Affairs (DCA) to support the proposed regime is insufficient;
- We have not received any evidence to show that the new charging regime would be transparent and subject to adequate review, nor how such a review process would operate; the proposed regime could result in public authorities avoiding answers to embarrassing, contentious or high-profile cases as the number of internal consultees rises in proportion to the sensitivity of particular requests; and
- The Ministry of Justice should now focus on improving compliance with the existing provisions of the FOI Act and on reducing the delays encountered by requesters seeking information. Any future proposed changes to the charging regime must be supported by a firm evidence base and take proper account of the impact they would have on the benefits which the public derive from FOI.
Finally, we examined the funding of the Information Commissioner's Office. In our view, this is insufficient to enable it to deliver an effective complaints resolution process. We repeat our recommendation (made in our Report last year) that the Information Commissioner should become directly responsible to, and be funded by, Parliament.
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