The City of London has disclosed information relating to the decision to grant the Church of Scientology Religious Education College (COSREC) mandatory relief from business rates for its premises at 146 Queen Victoria Street in London. The disclosure follows a ruling from the Information Commissioner (FS50265544) that minutes of a meeting between the CoL and COSREC in August 2006 should be disclosed.  The CoL had sought to withhold the minutes under sections 31(1)(d), 41(1) and 40(2) of the FOI Act.

The Commissioner’s decision notice states:

The Commissioner considers that there is a significant legitimate public interest in obtaining information about the process that led to COSREC being granted mandatory rate relief to enable the public to better understand how this organisation qualified for this form of tax relief. Particularly as the COSREC is controversial, there is significant public concern about the relief being awarded to this organisation, the amounts involved are substantial and the cost of mandatory rate relief is met by the public purse.

The documents made available by the CoL also include:

A legal opinion by Jonathan Crow QC from October 2008, correspondence with the Department for Communities and Local Government and a report considered by the Finance Committee at a meeting on 27 September 2010, where it was resolved to maintain the grant of mandatory relief.

The minutes were requested by William Thackeray.

Updated: 20 Oct 2010

19 Oct 2010 : Column 640W
Dr Huppert: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps her Department is taking to improve its level of compliance with the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. [16939]

Lynne Featherstone [holding answer 13 October 2010]: The Home Office has recognised that its performance in handling Freedom of Information requests must improve. We have taken a number of steps to achieve this, including a full review of the process for handling requests and better monitoring and reporting procedures. These measures have led to an increase in each of the last three months in the proportion of requests answered

14 Oct 2010 : Column 408W
Dr Huppert: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what steps his Department is taking to improve its level of compliance with the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. [16998]

David Mundell: The Scotland Office endeavours to handle all FOI requests in accordance with statutory requirements and good practice. Internal procedures have been reviewed to ensure that all requests are answered as quickly as possible; all relevant staff have been briefed on the Information Commissioner’s recent report; and the Scotland Office senior management team monitors performance on a monthly basis. For the most recent quarter, the Scotland Office exceeded 86% within 20 working days, which is above the Information Commissioner’s acceptable level of performance.

13 Oct 2010 : Column 338W
Dr Huppert: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what steps his Department is taking to improve its level of compliance with the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. [16940]

Steve Webb: The Department takes very seriously its obligations under the Freedom of Information Act. It has experienced a significant increase in the number of Freedom of Information requests received. Despite this, internal monitoring shows that more than 90% of the Department’s Freedom of Information requests were dealt with on time in June, July and August this year, the most recent months for which figures are available. The Department is also committed to increasing the transparency of its responses.

The National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) has published a new guide Voicing your right to know: A guide to using Freedom of Information in campaigning.

This new guide illustrates how the Freedom of Information Act has been used as a powerful and versatile campaigning tool from the local to the national level. It’s findings show how campaigners are at the forefront of developing our ‘right to know’, making government more transparent.

Illustrated by five case studies, Bliss, Corner House, Campaign Against the Arms Trade, TreeHouse and the Campaign for Clean Air in London, the guide explores ways in which Freedom of Information requests have been used in campaigns from developing the evidence base of a campaign or to gain crucial information on how decisions are made.  It also explores why and how campaigns can benefit from using Freedom of Information requests and tackles some of the potential difficulties that can arise.

The guide has been put together by Philip Hadley for Campaigning Effectiveness, NCVO. 

The government have complied with a ruling by the Tribunal and disclosed the minutes of the 1986 cabinet meeting where Michael Heseltine resigned over the Westland affair. The minutes were requested by the BBC’s Martin Rosenbaum in February 2005. Martin’s blog post on the disclosure is here.

This is the first time that cabinet minutes have been disclosed under the FOI Act. The previous government vetoed the release of cabinet minutes on the Iraq war and cabinet sub-committee minutes on devolution from 1997.

In response to a report in The Guardian, that the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Sir Paul Stephenson has lobbied the Home Secretary to introduce a fee for making freedom of information requests, the Lib Dem London Assembly policing spokeperson, Dee Doocey, has said:

It is appalling that the Met Commission is seeking to restrict freedom of information requests being made to the Met. Records already show that the Met has an appalling record in answering requests within the legal deadline, so instead of trying to improve their systems it seems the Met is just seeking to wriggle out of being held accountable.

Of course a few freedom of information requests might seem trivial, but overall such legislation goes a long way to demonstrating the openness and accountability of any public organisation.

Many freedom of information requests have also revealed wasteful expenditure, so often end up saving public money in the long term.

Sir Paul should think again.

ENDS

On the 1st October the Information Commissioner’s office published a list of 30 public bodies that have been flouting the Freedom of Information Act. The Metropolitan Police Service was listed as one of these 30 organisations:

http://www.ico.gov.uk/upload/documents/library/freedom_of_information/notices/list_of_ico_monitored_bodies.pdf

See:
Keep to the law and stop complaining – Dee Doocey criticises Met proposals to limit FOI requests
Protect police from lawsuits, says Met chief – The Guardian, 10 October 2010

The Campaign for Freedom of Information held a fringe meeting at the Liberal Democrat conference in Liverpool on 18 September 2010. The meeting was addressed by Lord McNally, the minister responsible for freedom of information, and Sir Alan Beith MP, the chair of the House of Commons Justice Committee. A brief summary of what they said is available here.

At the meeting, Lord McNally confirmed that an announcement would be made later this year following a review of FOI issues.  He said: “what the coalition has committed itself to is an examination of how the Freedom of Information Act has worked, where it could be extended within its present powers and where it might be extended by primary legislation.”

The Treasury has published guidance for central government on publishing spending over £25,000 from November 2010. This was one of the specific government commitments set out in the Prime Minister’s letter to government departments on opening up data of 31 May 2010.

The guidance and a template showing the expected format of published data can be downloaded from:
http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/psr_transparency_index.htm

Readers might like to know about an interesting new blog on FOI written by a FOI practitioner:

I’ve been keen for some time to find a forum to write about FOI. When I talk to colleagues or people I meet who have not really understood the benefits of this legislation, I have wanted to address their concerns. When I read other blogs or articles in the Press about FOI, criticising fellow FOI Officers, dismissing the use of exemptions, berating organisations for their seeming lack of openness, I have wanted to read somewhere of the other point of view. Sometimes there are good reasons for refusing requests. Sometimes it is as frustrating for the FOI Officer themselves that they have failed to persuade colleagues or superiors to disclose information. Sometimes I am annoyed by the attitudes of public sector bodies myself and want to point out that their reasoning is wrong.

So this blog looks at FOI from a new point of view. From the inside.

The FOI Man blog is at http://foiman.com/