FOI should apply to prisons and parking tickets, even if contractors hold the information, says Campaign

Posted on January 23, 2016 by CFOI in Campaigns, News | Comments Off

Information about prison attacks, penalty fares on London Overground, whistleblowing policies in the NHS and parking tickets has all been withheld under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act because this information was held by public authority contractors and not by the authorities themselves.

The Campaign for Freedom of Information is calling for the FOI Act to be extended to such information. It cites 10 examples of information about public services which has been withheld because of a loophole in the Act.
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Response to the Commission on Freedom of Information

Posted on November 27, 2015 by CFOI in Consultation responses, News, Publications | Comments Off

The Campaign has published an updated version of its response to the Commission on Freedom of Information, which it has also sent to the Commission. Its original submission contained a survey of Tribunal decisions which at that time was incomplete. The updated version contains the complete survey.
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All-party briefing on the Commission on FOI

Posted on November 9, 2015 by CFOI in Campaigns, News | Comments Off

Briefing

The Commission on Freedom of Information

and the future of the FOI Act

2.30 pm Monday 30 November 2015

House of Commons, Committee Room 9

Speakers

Tom Watson MP, Deputy Leader of the Opposition

The Rt Hon David Davis MP, Conservative, Haltemprice and Howden

Lord Tyler, Lib Dem, Constitutional & Political Reform Spokesperson

Campaign responds to Chris Grayling’s FOI comments

Posted on October 29, 2015 by CFOI in News, Press releases | Comments Off

The Campaign for Freedom of Information has responded to comments about the Freedom of Information Act made by Chris Grayling, Leader of the House, during Business Questions on 29 October 2015. Mr Grayling said the Act is being “misused” as “a research tool to generate stories for the media, and that is not acceptable”.

The Campaign’s director Maurice Frankel said:

“The FOI Act exists to help hold government to account, improve the public’s understanding of what it does does, to show whether policies are working and identify where public services need to be improved. Journalists are key users of the Act for those purposes and no-one should be surprised if that involves producing ‘stories’. That’s how the public learns what is going on.

Mr Grayling says he’s in favour of people using FOI to understand why and how government takes decisions. But the government has just set up the Commission on FOI to consider measures to restrict access to information about the decision-making process. He should tell them to look at ways of opening the process up instead.”

Proposed anonymous use of evidence by the Commission on FOI criticised

Posted on October 27, 2015 by CFOI in Letters & evidence, News, Press releases | Comments Off

UPDATE 28/10/15: Lord Burns has replied to the Campaign’s letter below. The reply says that the statement was only intended to imply that individual contributions would be anonymised. The Commission has now removed the statement and promised it will publish the evidence it receives.

The Campaign for Freedom of Information has written to Lord Burns, chair of the Commission on Freedom of Information, expressing concern at the Commission’s proposal to anonymise any evidence that it cites in its report.
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Briefing – FOI Commission consultation

Posted on October 15, 2015 by CFOI in Campaigns, News | Comments Off

21 Oct, 2 pm, Free Word Centre, 60 Farringdon Road, London EC1R 3GA

The Campaign for Freedom of Information and ARTICLE 19 are holding a briefing meeting for NGOs and media organisations on the consultation paper published by the Commission on Freedom of Information. The consultation suggests the Commission is considering sweeping changes to restrict the FOI Act, including:

imposing charges for requests
making it easier to refuse requests on cost grounds
making it more difficult to obtain public authorities’ internal discussions, or excluding some from access altogether
strengthening ministers’ powers to veto disclosures
changing the way the Act is enforced

The meeting is to brief organisations that are proposing to respond to the consultation. We strongly encourage you to do so drawing on your own experience of the value of the FOI Act.

If you would like to attend the meeting, please rsvp to admin@cfoi.demon.co.uk.

The deadline for responding to the consultation is 20 November 2015. The consultation paper is available from –

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/independent-commission-on-freedom-of-information-call-for-evidence

New consultation document confirms that sweeping restrictions to FOI being considered

Posted on October 9, 2015 by CFOI in Press releases | Comments Off

Sweeping restrictions to the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act are being considered by the body set up to consider the legislation, according to the Campaign for Freedom of Information.

After sitting for 3 months, the Commission on Freedom of Information, set up by the government this July, has today finally invited the public to submit evidence to it [1]. Its consultation document confirms that it is considering whether public authorities’ internal discussions should be made more difficult to obtain and whether ministers’ ability to veto disclosures should be strengthened. It is also considering changing the way the Act is enforced, which could reduce the public’s rights, and reducing the Act’s ‘burden’ on public authorities. Off the record briefings suggest this could include charging for FOI requests.
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140 press and campaign bodies urge PM not to weaken FOI Act

Posted on September 22, 2015 by CFOI in Campaigns, News, Press releases | Comments Off

140 media bodies, campaign groups and others [1] have written to the Prime Minister expressing ‘serious concern’ at the government’s approach to the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act.

The organisations are particularly concerned at the Commission on Freedom of Information, announced on July 17th this year. They say its terms of reference make clear that ‘its purpose is to consider new restrictions to the Act’ [2] and that there is no indication that it is expected to consider how the right of access might need to be improved.
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Response FOI Tribunal fees consultation

Posted on September 21, 2015 by CFOI in Campaigns, Consultation responses, News | Comments Off

The Campaign has responded to a Ministry of Justice consultation proposing the introduction of fees for appeals against decisions of the Information Commissioner to the First-tier Tribunal.

We do not support the proposal. We think the proposed fees, of £100 for a case determined on the papers and £600 for an appeal involving an oral hearing, will deter many requesters from pursuing potentially successful appeals under the Freedom of Information Act or Environmental Information Regulations. It will be the public, and in particular, the public interest in the accountability of public authorities, that will be damaged.

Fees for FOI appeals

Posted on July 30, 2015 by CFOI in Briefings, Campaigns, Consultation responses, News | Comments Off

The Ministry of Justice is consulting on proposals that fees should be introduced for appeals to the Tribunal against Information Commissioner FOI decisions. The proposals would have serious implications for individual FOI requesters and the general public. However, figuring out precisely where these proposals can be found is a little tricky.
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