MPs who come up in this week’s ballot for private members’ bills are being urged to introduce a bill to improve the public’s right to know about public service contracts.
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MPs who come up in this week’s ballot for private members’ bills are being urged to introduce a bill to improve the public’s right to know about public service contracts.
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FOI requesters should not encourage others to apply for the same information in order to put pressure on the authority to release it. The tactic is likely to backfire leading to the request being refused as vexatious, as a recent tribunal case shows (Michael Sivier v Information Commissioner, EA/2013/0277).
A survey of local councils, aimed at gathering information to push for restrictions to the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act, has been criticised by the Campaign for Freedom of Information. A body representing local authority lawyers has appealed to councils on behalf of the Local Government Association (LGA) saying the LGA is thinking of calling for changes to the Act and asking them to supply details of “problems” caused by it. [*] Read More
Justice minister, Simon Hughes, today confirmed there would be two significant consultations on the Freedom of Information Act this year:
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The Campaign for Freedom of Information welcomed today’s Court of Appeal ruling overturning the government’s veto of an Upper Tribunal decision ordering the release of Prince Charles’ correspondence with ministers. The Guardian had applied for the correspondence under the Freedom of Information Act. The Upper Tribunal, which deals with high level FOI appeals, had ordered disclosure, but the Attorney General had vetoed the tribunal’s decision.
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The FOI Act makes a vital contribution to keeping the public properly informed, showing when public authorities are failing to meet required standards and holding government to account.
These reports produced by the Campaign summarise FOI disclosures on a range of issues including the NHS, policing, prisons, defence, asylum, immigration education, public services, political lobbying nuclear safety, environmental protection and other issues.
The government’s new FOI Commission, announced in July 2015, is looking at measures to reduce the FOI Act’s ‘burden’ on public authorities. But many of the examples below show how the Act reduces costs, by revealing and helping to deter unjustified spending.
• Disclosures under the FOI Act, (January 2014)
The government has replied to a joint letter to the Prime Minister sent by 76 organisations, calling on the government not to proceed with proposals to restrict the FOI Act. The letter, co-ordinated by the Campaign for Freedom of Information, said the proposals would allow many requests of substantial public interest to be refused regardless of the benefits of disclosure.
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This is the Campaign for Freedom of Information’s new website. We are still developing it. It contains much of the information from our previous web site and will eventually have all of it. In the meantime, you can view the old web site here.
The Supreme Court is currently considering whether Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights incorporates a right to freedom of information. The Campaign has joined with the Media Legal Defence Initiative in intervening in this important case and are represented by Richard Clayton QC and Christopher Knight.
The case has been brought by Dominic Kennedy, a Times journalist, who was refused information by the Charity Commission under a blanket FOI exemption which applies regardless of the harm or benefit of disclosure. He argues that the refusal breached his rights under Article 10.
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76 campaign groups, charities and press bodies have written to the prime minister urging him to drop proposals to restrict the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act. They say the proposals are not compatible with the prime minister’s stated aim of making the UK “the most open and transparent government in the world”.
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