11 December 2006

The Campaign for Freedom of Information (CFOI) has submitted a formal response to the Department for Constitutional Affairs regarding proposed changes to the Freedom of Information Act. (FOIA). Additionally the campaign is encouraging members of the public to sign an online petition urging the Government to reject the proposals.

Three major changes to the Act are being considered. The first is the introduction of a standard fee for all requests. At the moment, applications made under the FOIA are processed without charge.

The second proposal is to aggregate the costs of multiple requests made by a single applicant and refuse those applications if their combined cost exceeds the limit. This can already be done with different requests made by the same applicant on the same subject but it is proposed to extend this to also cover requests made on different subjects. This could further limit access to the Act by the public, journalists, media outlets and campaigning organisations.

Thirdly, it is proposed the cost limit should take into account the amount of time taken by officials and civil servants to consider requests. This could present an insurmountable obstacle to complicated or “sensitive” requests – as the time taken in merely debating such applications could be enough to raise costs past the prescribed limit. Additionally, this proposal provides a golden opportunity for those wishing to circumvent the legislation and avoid releasing information.

Clearly, if passed, these changes will impact severely on the amount of information released under the auspices of the Act and limit public access. Maurice Frankel, Director of CFOI, told SpinWatch: “The Government's proposals would severely undermine the Freedom of Information Act as a tool for holding Government to account.

“Any complex, probing or potentially contentious request would be likely to be refused simply because the time needed to consider the issues involved could be taken into account in future. Once this exceeded a set limit, they could refuse to process the request, regardless of the public interest in the subject. The public would get less information and Government will be shielded from scrutiny.

“The Government is also planning to allow authorities to add together the costs of all requests made to it by the same organisation or individual and refuse them if their combined cost exceeds the cost limit. In practice this would limit the press, campaigners and others to perhaps just one request per quarter to a Government department or authority – preventing any kind of systematic monitoring or scrutiny of decisions.

These proposals are an attempt to neuter the Freedom of Information Act, and we hope people will not only sign the online petition but ask their MPs to oppose these changes.”

Further information is available on the Campaign for Freedom of Information’s website and can be found by clicking here .