The Campaign for Freedom of Information is a non-profit organisation working to improve public access to official information and ensure that the Freedom of Information Act is implemented effectively.

The Campaign was set-up in 1984, played a leading role in the passage of the FOI Act and is recognised as a leading independent authority in the field. We provide advice to individuals in exercising their rights to information. We provide training both for public authorities implementing the Act and for users of the legislation. Please contact us for more details.

We are not affiliated to any political party. Our main funding comes from charitable sources including the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, the Allen Lane Foundation, the Nuffield Foundation, the GW Cadbury Charitable Trust and from supporting organisations and individuals. We are also grateful for a one off donation from Freedom to Care.

If you believe Britain is too secretive a society, please support our work by making a donation. Your contribution will make a difference and be greatly appreciated.

If you can help by volunteering in our London office please get in touch as we often need extra help with campaigning, research projects and general office administration.

The Campaign has published a users' guide to the Freedom of Information Act, Environmental Information Regulations and rights to see personal data about you held by public authorities. The guide covers both the UK and Scottish legislation.

The Campaign is now running the UK Freedom of Information Blog, providing daily updates on the latest FOI developments.

Have you been able to make effective use of information released under the FOI Act or Environmental Information Regulations? For example, have you used the information to influence an authority's decision or policy? If you work for a public authority, are there cases where information disclosed under FOI/EIRs has been used to influence or inform your authority's decisions or policies? In either case, we would like to hear from you.

Are you a lawyer able to provide pro bono assistance to people representing themselves in FOI tribunal cases? If so, the Campaign would welcome hearing from you.

Please get in touch at: admin@cfoi.demon.co.uk or write to us at the address at the bottom of the page.

The Campaign's next 'Scottish Information Commissioner Decisions' courses will be in Glasgow on 1 February 2011 and Aberdeen on 2 February 2011. Further details to follow later in the summer.

Using the FOI Act! Courses for new & experienced requesters

Do you want to learn how to use the Freedom of Information Act? Are you already using the Act, but want to know more about how the Information Commissioner and Information Tribunal are interpreting its key provisions? The Campaign is running a day training course for FOI requesters in central London on Thursday 16 September 2010. The course is divided into two parts. The morning part provides an introduction to the legislation for those who are new to it, covering both the Freedom of Information Act and the parallel Environmental Information Regulations. The afternoon is more advanced and will examine some of the key decisions made under the two regimes and explain how they can help you obtain information. We think most people will benefit from attending the whole day, but very experienced requesters may prefer to attend just the afternoon. Further information and details on how to book here.

The Campaign has responded to the Scottish Government's consultation on revising its code of good practice under the FOI (Scotland) Act. It expresses concern that the draft code’s approach to requests which are phrased in terms of ‘documents’ rather than ‘information’ is restrictive and undermines the Scottish Information Commissioner’s guidance on this issue. It suggests that the guidance on the provision of advice and assistance could be strengthened; that the loss of specific Scottish Government guidance on the EIRs may have unintended consequences; that the draft may lead to confusion between the FOISA exemptions on breach of confidence and substantial prejudice to commercial interests. It also says authorities should not be entitled to ignore a request for internal review which has not been made to a designated person.

The Campaign has welcomed the government's announcement that it has dropped its proposal to exempt cabinet papers from the Freedom of Information Act, and that it will reduce the 30 year rule to 20 years.

The Campaign has responded to a request from the UK Statistics Authority for its views on the adequacy of the Ministry of Justice's freedom of information statistics.

The ICO has recently commented on the University of East Anglia's handling of FOI requests for climate change data, pointing out that, although the deliberate destruction of requested records is an offence, no prosecution could be considered as there is a 6 month time limit for doing so. Last year, the Campaign promoted an amendment to the FOI Act, to extend this 6 month limit, but the government rejected it. This note explains the background.

The Campaign's next half-day course on 'Information Commissioner & Tribunal Decisions' will be in London on 7 June 2010. The course, which is aimed at those with a good working knowledge of the legislation, highlights the latest developments in the way the main exemptions, the public interest test and the legislation's procedural requirements are being interpreted. The course is presented by the Campaign's director, Maurice Frankel, who has worked in the field for 26 years. It will cover the most significant decisions issued since our last course in November 2009. The content will therefore vary, depending on the cases that have been decided, but the course typically addresses issues such as: "fair" and "unfair" disclosures of personal data, the FOI/EIR border, the application of specific exemptions, where the public interest line is being drawn and the cost limit, advice & assitance and other administrative provisions.

Passage of the FOI Act - This chapter by Katherine Gundersen describes the passage of the FOI Act and early experience of its operation. It first appeared as part of as part of Unlocking Democracy: 20 years of Charter 88, published by Politico's in December 2008.

Back issues of the Campaign's Secrets newspaper - To mark the 25th anniversary of the Campaign (it was launched in January 1984), the Campaign has published back issues of its Secrets newspaper which appeared between 1984 and 1993. The newspapers, which may be of interest to people studying the history of freedom of information in the UK, start by describing the position of the party leaders at the time - Neil Kinnock, David Steel, David Owen and the then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. They document the secrecy problems that prompted demands for a FOI Act, the progress of various private members' bills promoted by the Campaign, the causes celebre of the time including the Ponting and Tisdall official secrets prosecutions and the Freedom of Information Awards given to public authorities which voluntarily opened their files to the public without being forced to do so. (Note to students writing about the history of this issue: please read these newspapers before/instead of contacting the Campaign!)

The government has used its veto to block the disclosure of information under the FOI Act for the second time. The case involves a request for 1997 minutes of the cabinet committee dealing with devolution. Remarkably the government was in the process of appealing to the Tribunal against the Commissioner's decision, but has dropped the appeal and vetoed the decision instead. This comment piece discusses the case.

ICO delays raised in Parliament and highlighted by the Information Tribunal. Read more.

The Government's plans to extend the Freedom of Information Act to just 4 bodies or classes of organisation is "a useful but disappointingly modest result", the Campaign has said. Read the press release.

Long delays by the Information Commissioner's Office in investigating freedom of information complaints are undermining the effectiveness of the FOI Act, according to a new report by the Campaign. The report analyses nearly 500 formal decision notices issued by the ICO in the 18 months to 31 March 2009. It finds that on average it took 19.7 months from the date of a complaint to the ICO to the date on which the ICO's decision was issued. It also shows that 46% of cases took between 1 and 2 years from complaint to decision notice and 30% took more than 2 years to a decision. The report also found that on average the ICO's investigation into a complaint did not begin until 8 months after the complaint had been received. In 28% of cases, there was a delay of more than a year before the investigation began. The report is published in two parts, a report plus a table providing data on all 493 decision notices considered in the study. A press release accompanying the report is here.

The information on MPs' allowances published by the House of Commons would have made it impossible to detect the most serious abuses revealed by the Daily Telegraph, the Campaign for Freedom of Information said. Read the press release.

The Campaign for Freedom of Information has welcomed the Prime Minister's announcement that the Freedom of Information Act would be extended to additional bodies and that the 30 year period before old official papers are made public would be reduced to 20 years. However, it expressed serious concern at Mr Brown's announcement that new exemptions to the Freedom of Information Act would be introduced for Cabinet Papers and for information relating to the Royal Family. Read the press release.

The Campaign for Freedom of Information in Scotland has responded to the Scottish Government's discussion paper on extending the scope of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act. The Campaign supports the extension in the scope of the Act to bodies with public functions and to contractors providing services on behalf of Scottish public authorities. It also calls for the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland, which plays a key role in policing decisions to be brought under FOISA in its own right.

This press release says the government's decision to veto the release of the Iraq cabinet minutes is an "extremely retrograde" step. The Campaign said the government should have abided by the Information Tribunal's decision on the release of the cabinet minutes - or appealed against it, but not overruled it. The Campaign also expressed serious concern at the statement of Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary, that the government was actively considering widening some of the Freedom of Information Act's exemptions, to make it easier to withhold official information.

The Campaign has welcomed proposals to halve the "30 year rule" and automatically release government records after 15 years. The proposals are made by a committed chaired by Paul Dacre, editor in chief of Associated Newspapers, which had been asked to review the 30 year rule by the Prime Minister. However, the Campaign expressed reservations about the proposal that the names of civil servants should normally be blacked out from released documents, which it said conflicted with rulings of the Information Commissioner and Information Tribunal. Read the press release.

This press release says the Government should 'live with' the Information Tribunal's decision, published on 27 January 2009, and release the two sets of cabinet minutes from 2003 discussing the decision to go to war in Iraq. The Tribunal's decision, made under the Freedom of Information Act, found that the balance of public interest favoured disclosure.

Press release welcoming the government's decision to shelve "improper" attempt to conceal MPs' expenses.

Parliamentary briefing urging MPs and peers to vote against the proposal to exclude information about their expenses from the Freedom of Information Act.

The Campaign is urging its supporters to write to their MPs opposing the Government's move to exclude MPs' expenses from the FOI Act. The measure is being rushed through Parliament at extraordinary speed with no public consultation or advance notice. You can read more about the proposal on our website here.

A letter from Maurice Frankel published in The Times on 4 December 2008 points out that the kind of leaks involved in the Damian Green affair were of information of a kind deliberately removed from the scope of the Official Secrets Act 1989 which intended that such matters be dealt with as a disciplinary rather than a criminal matter.

This short briefing on delays in investigating FOI complaints by the Information Commissioner's Office was circulated to MPs in advance of a debate in the House of Commons on 24 November 2008.

A new report by the Campaign summarises more than 1,000 press stories based on disclosures under the UK and Scottish FOI acts in 2006 and 2007. The stories demonstrate the enormous range of information being released under FOI and reveal the substantial contribution to accountability made by the acts. In 2006, the government proposed to restrict the UK FOI Act, partly because of what it said was excessive use of the Act being made by journalists. The report shows how valuable the press's use of FOI has been. The proposals were dropped by Gordon Brown after he became prime minister in 2007. (Note: the report is 250 pages and may take a little while to download).

This article, published in Press Gazette on 2 May 2008, reviews the Information Tribunal's recent decisions on access to policy advice showing that it has required disclosure only a short time after the relevant government decision has been taken. Despite two High Court challenges, the government has failed to overturn the Tribunal's approach.

The Campaign has responded to the review of the 30 year rule set up by the Prime Minister. It summarises the 7 Information Tribunal decisions to date dealing with advice or internal discussion and points out that in almost every case the Tribunal has held that disclosure should have taken place at the time of the request, a few years or a few months after the decision. It says that this material should now be proactively released after 15 years, though if necessary, the reduction could be brought in in two stages, starting with 20 years initially. This change would also mean that these exemptions could no longer be used to withhold information under the FOI Act once it was 15 (or 20) years old.

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