About us

Extracts from files in the National Archives on government plans for introducing a Freedom of Information Act
On election day in 1997 the Campaign sent Tony Blair's chief of staff detailed proposals for drafting the Freedom of Information Act promised in Labour's manifesto. These documents in The National Archives include the handwritten comments of the Cabinet Secretary, Sir Robin Butler. The FOI Act was passed in 2000. Image: Campaign for Freedom of Information.

The Campaign for Freedom of Information played a leading role in persuading the Blair government to make and honour a manifesto commitment to introduce the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and in improving what started out as an extremely weak FOI bill.

We campaign to improve and defend freedom of information in support of a more vibrant and open democracy and to hold government to account. We train campaigners, journalists and citizens in using FOI, advise FOI requesters, and assist with appeals to the Information Commissioner and Tribunal against unjustified refusals to release information. We also provide training courses on FOI case law for those who specialise in FOI.

We are a not-for-profit organisation which is not affiliated to any political party. Our main funding comes from the Joseph Rowntree Charitable TrustJoseph Rowntree Reform Trust, Diana Whitworth CAF Trust and individual donations. We have also been funded by Trust for LondonIndigo Trust and the Primrose Hill Trust.

Achievements

The Campaign was set up in 1984 by citizen campaigner Des Wilson to secure FOI legislation for the UK.  We drafted and promoted a series of successful private members’ bills, several of which became law as:

  • the Access to Personal Files Act 1987 (providing a right of access to individual housing and social work files)
  • the Access to Medical Reports Act 1988 (providing access to medical reports for employers and insurers)
  • the Environment and Safety Information Act 1988 (providing access to various enforcement notices)
  • the Access to Health Records Act 1990 (providing a general right of access to health records)

We also drafted a bill to reform section 2 of the Official Secrets Act 1911, a catch-all provision which made the unauthorised disclosure of any official information a criminal offence. The bill, introduced by Conservative MP Richard Shepherd in 1988, led the government to replace section 2 with a substantially more limited Official Secrets Act in 1989.

In February 1993 another of our private member’s bills, for a full FOI Act, was introduced by Labour MP Mark Fisher and debated for a total of 21 hours in the House of Commons. We later learnt that it had led John Major’s government to consider committing itself to FOI.  Ultimately it opted for the non-statutory Code of Practice on Access to Government Information instead. The Code, introduced in 1994, provided an FOI-like regime with complaints going to the Parliamentary Ombudsman. It received little publicity and was not greatly used.

In 1997 the Labour Government published a positive white paper on FOI (Your Right to Know, Cm 3818). This was followed by an extremely weak draft FOI bill. This was subject to pre-legislative scrutiny by committees in the Commons and Lords both of which endorsed our criticisms of the proposals. We took the lead in proposing amendments to the bill during its Parliamentary passage with significant success. Our press releases and briefings on the FOI bill are available here.

The former Home Secretary Jack Straw, who took the FOI Act through Parliament, later said that Labour’s manifesto commitment to FOI was:

“the product of a brilliant campaign by the Campaign for Freedom of Information.”

Image of Secrets Newspaper produced by the Campaign for Freedom of Information
The Campaign for Freedom of Information was launched in 1984 with opposition leaders backing FOI

Impact

Before becoming prime minister, Tony Blair committed himself to FOI at the Campaign’s annual awards in 1996. You can read the text of his speech or listen to him giving it. Mr Blair powerfully made the case for FOI and praised the critical role of the Campaign in promoting it:

“It is not some isolated constitutional reform that we are proposing with a Freedom of Information Act. It is a change that is absolutely fundamental to how we see politics developing in this country…there is still far too much addiction to secrecy and wish to conduct government business behind closed doors”.

But in his 2010 memoirs he took the diametrically opposite view, declaring his earlier support to be that of an “idiot” and a “naive, foolish, irresponsible nincompoop”. His comments made an equally powerful, if unintentional, case for the continued need for the Campaign to defend the legislation. Once politicians find that it’s their own decisions which come under scrutiny, they are liable to try to undermine the legislation. Our work to protect FOI is therefore essential.

The FOI Act has been under repeated attack since it came into force.

  • In 2006-07 the Blair government attempted to make it substantially easier for authorities to refuse requests. Its proposals would have allowed vast numbers of requests to be refused out of hand, regardless of their merits.
  • In the same year a private member’s bill sought to remove Parliament and thus MPs’ expenses from the Act.
  • In 2009 the government proposed to exclude all cabinet papers from the Act.  If this measure had succeeded,  cabinet committee papers about matters such as BSE would still be excluded from FOI.
  • In 2012 there was a move to exclude all Whitehall policy discussions from access. Former cabinet secretary Lord O’Donnell and former Home Secretary Jack Straw both called for this during the Justice select committee’s post legislative scrutiny of the Act, though the committee went on to reject the proposal.
  • In 2012 the coalition government announced in its response to the Justice Committee’s report that it was considering a series of measures to make it easier to refuse FOI requests on cost grounds, reviving measures previously attempted by the Blair administration. The government said it would decide which options it preferred and consult on them. By the time it left office, in May 2015, no consultation paper had been published.
  • In 2015 the government appointed an Independent Commission on Freedom of Information chaired by Lord Burns to examine the case for new restrictions to the Act, particularly to prevent the disclosure of internal policy discussions. The Commission’s final report expressly credited the Campaign’s detailed evidence as having helped to persuade it that the Act was working well and should not be restricted.

The Burns Commission also acknowledged our evidence in reaching its view that cabinet papers should not be excluded from access and in support of a number of welcome proposals to strengthen the Act.The BBC’s FOI correspondent, Martin Rosenbaum, later attributed the outcome in part to:

“the strong pressure applied by FOI supporters – notably the dedicated and tightly argued lobbying by the Campaign for Freedom of Information, the numbers mobilised through the website 38 Degrees, and the powerful publicity of the media, such as the Daily Mail.”

All of these proposed restrictions have been successfully resisted. In each case the Campaign’s unique specialised expertise has been crucial.

However, in 2010 the Act was amended to prevent access to information about communications between a public authority and the monarch or the next two in line to the throne.

Campaign for Freedom of Information logo

The Campaign’s distinctive logo – a series of security classifications crossed out by a red line – appears on most of the materials on this site. It was designed for the Campaign when we were launched in 1984 and has been in continuous use since then on our publications, letterhead and web site. We’d be grateful if you would not use it without acknowledging that it is the Campaign’s logo

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