freedom of information.co.uk

October 18th 2004

Lord Falconer has promised the Freedom of Information Act will cause ‘a big cultural change’ in Government. The Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs also vowed the public would not be priced out of using the Act.  But he confessed to being ‘really worried’ about bad publicity when the Act comes into force next January.

The Lord Chancellor has responsibility for the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), which gives the public the right of access to information held by over 100,000 UK public authorities.   In an interview for today’s Guardian, he insisted that the Act is regarded as ‘a really big deal’ in Whitehall and urged the media to focus on citizens' rights to information, rather than arguments over the limits of the Act.   

The Act has been criticised for having too many exemptions, including ones forbidding the release of information about the formulation of Government policy.  Open Government campaigners are also unhappy that ministers can override decisions of the official watchdog, the Information Commissioner. 

Addressing these criticisms, Lord Falconer emphasised that all factual background material relating to policy decisions, such as statistics, analysis and foreign comparisons, would be released, adding, ‘We are absolutely determined that the exemptions should only be used in the interest of good government and not increase secrecy ultimately.’  He also gave his word that the ministerial veto would be used "very, very infrequently"

The Act allows public authorities to charge applicants for information, although fees regulations are yet to be announced.  Lord Falconer promised, ‘I am utterly determined that fees should not be any sort of bar or dampener to people applying for information.  I want to go further than the promises made at the time the bill went through parliament."  He said he would ideally like a system akin to the one applying to MPs, in which information requested in written questions is disclosed free of charge, except in the rare instances when costs reach a threshold such as £1,000.  It was reported last month that the Prime Minister had decided to scrap most fees.