The government’s decision to veto the disclosure of Prince Charles’ correspondence lobbying ministers was criticised by the Campaign for Freedom of Information.
The government’s decision to veto the disclosure of Prince Charles’ correspondence lobbying ministers was criticised by the Campaign for Freedom of Information.
The Campaign for Freedom of Information has welcomed Labour’s commitment to extend the Freedom of Information Act to private companies delivering public services.
In a speech at the Labour Party conference on 3 October, the Shadow Justice Secretary, Sadiq Khan MP, said:
And it’s also time to address a blind spot in our Freedom of Information laws I’m proud Labour introduced FoI, however awkward it can be. Not only will the next Labour Government protect FoI, but we will seek to extend it. For the first time, FoI will cover the delivery of public services by private companies. This includes our prisons, our schools and our health service. Public private or voluntary, subjected to the same disinfecting transparency of FoI
Liverpool City council leaves millions in tax uncollected 2.07.2012 Click Liverpool
A Lib Dem politician has slammed Liverpool City Council over its failure to collect a more than £23 million in council tax that remains unpaid since 2009. The disclosure about the level of uncollected tax came in a responses to a Freedom of Information question posed by a researcher. Town hall officials revealed that there remains £11,931,737.20p uncollected for the calendar year 2010/11. Despite promises that there would be a crack-down on tax dodgers that sum is slightly higher that the for year 2009/10 for which £11,450,854.01p remains uncollected.
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A major review of the Freedom of Information Act which rejects charging for FOI requests or new restrictions on access to policy discussions in Whitehall has been warmly welcomed by the Campaign for Freedom of Information which said the report “would preserve and strengthen the important advances made by the FOI Act”.
The Campaign has welcomed the Justice Committee’s report on post-legislative scrutiny of the FOI Act, which rejects charging for FOI requests or new restrictions on access to policy discussions in Whitehall. The Campaign made two written submissions to the Committee and gave oral evidence at the Committee’s first hearing on 21 February 2012. You can watch a recording of the session or read an uncorrected transcript of it.
Our initial submission described some areas where the Freedom of Information Act and Environmental Information Regulations are not working as well as they should and suggested a number of improvements such as the introduction of statutory time limits for public interest extensions and internal reviews and the lifting of some absolute exemptions. It also addressed the contracting out of public authority functions to bodies which are not subject to the Act. Recent measures to encourage this process are likely to substantially undermine the public’s rights to information. Finally, it responded to suggestions that changes to the right of access may be introduced to protect cabinet papers, introduce fees for making requests or to make it easier for public authorities to refuse requests on costs grounds. The Campaign made a supplementary submission to the Committee addressing some of the points about the Act’s exemption for policy advice made by Lord O’Donnell and Jack Straw in their evidence to the Committee. This supplementary submission also provided examples of excessive or wasteful spending revealed by FOI, which suggest the Act is likely to play an important role in exposing and deterring excessive spending, which is generally not taken into account when assessing the ‘costs’ of FOI.
GP practice offloaded vulnerable patients to save money 31.05.2012 – The Guardian
A GP practice run by a doctor who has been of one of the most prominent supporters of Andrew Lansley’s health reforms de-registered elderly and disabled care home patients to save money. The NHS launched an investigation into Churchill medical practice in Kingston last year after complaints that it had let go of 48 patients who required high levels of care. NHS South-West London found that Churchill was in breach of its “contractual obligations to patients” by removing the patients and that it had done so “predominantly for financial reasons”. The NHS issued a breach of contract notice. Three infringements would mean that Churchill’s GP’s lost the right to practice.
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This letter by the Campaign was published by The Guardian on 18 July 2012, in response to an article by the commentator Simon Jenkins.
Simon Jenkins takes a hefty swing at the Freedom of Information Act on the grounds that its “total disclosure” damages good government. (For the digital revolution, this is the Robespierre moment, 10 July). But there is no “total disclosure” under FOI as anyone who has grappled with the act’s 13 pages of exemptions knows.
The Justice Committee will publish its First Report of Session 2012–13, Post-legislative scrutiny of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, at 00.01 hrs on Thursday 26 July 2012 as HC 96-I and II.
Embargoed electronic copies will be made available to witnesses and members of the press from 11.00 am on Monday 23 July 2012.
Copies of published reports may be obtained from the Parliamentary Bookshop and the Stationery Office (details below) and the text will be available via the Committee’s website, www.parliament.uk/justicecom upon publication.
Metropolitan police stockpiling rubber coated bullets 3.05.2012 – BBC
A BBC investigation has suggested that following the London riots in the summer of 2011 police began to stockpile a reserve of rubber bullets. In the month before last August’s riots, the Metropolitan Police held just 700 baton rounds of the bullets but by December 2011, the number had increased 14 times to more than 10,024, a Freedom of Information request shows. Baton rounds have never been used to quell disorder on the mainland of the UK but have been responsible for fatalities during their use in Northern Ireland.
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