freedom of information.co.uk

December 30th 2004

The Deputy Information Commissioner has predicted his office will get into some ‘scraps’ with Central Government over the release of sensitive information under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA.)   In an interview with Freedomofinformation.co.uk, Graham Smith, the Deputy Commissioner with responsibility for the FOIA, said his office also expects to do battle with private companies over the release of environmental information.

The Act comes in to force on January 1st and allows the public access to information held by over 100,000 public bodies, ranging from Government departments to primary schools.  On the same day new, tougher, Environmental Information Regulations come into force, which will cover many of the privatised utilities.

Mr Smith said, ‘I think it would be naive to say we’re not going to get into some scraps with Central Government departments; there are going to be some very difficult cases over some very sensitive information.’  And he emphasised that the Information Commissioner Richard Thomas would ‘not be very sympathetic’ towards public authorities that fail to comply with the Act.

The Act has 23 exemptions, which allow public authorities to withhold information on public interest and other grounds. This includes information relating to the formulation of government policy and information that that could be commercially prejudicial.  Mr Smith said the legislation  would, in time, ‘ratchet up’ the openness of the public sector and that the most open authorities are likely to drive the standards of the more reluctant ones.   He added: ‘good practice in one authority will make it very difficult for a neighbouring authority of a similar type to justify withholding the equivalent information.’

Mr Smith became joined the Information Commissioner’s office in 2001 after a twenty-year career as a local authority in-house lawyer. 

Read full interview with Graham Smith