UK: Preparing For Freedom!

Three-quarters of government departments have not yet budgeted for the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) and almost one in three departments did not know the deadlines for the Act,
according to a recent survey by The Stationery Office.

FOIA introduces new rights of access to a wide range of information held by Local Authorities, along with other public bodies. It imposes two main obligations – the requirement to produce a "publication scheme", which has been in force since 28 February this year and to respond to requests for information which comes into force from 1 January 2005.

A publication scheme is effectively a catalogue of all of the information published by a public authority. Local Authorities should ensure that their schemes set out the classes of information which they publish or intends to publish, its format as well as details of whether the information is freely available or subject to a charge. Publication schemes must be approved by the Information Commissioner. Many Local Authorities have opted to make their publication schemes available on the internet, seeing this as the most convenient, accessible and least expensive way of complying with FOIA requirements. Although there is no "model" publication scheme available briefing papers relating to the draft schemes of the seven Local Authorities which participated in last year's pilot project can be found on the Local Government Association website.

As from 1 January 2005, any person may make a request for any information held by a public authority as well as specify in what format they wish to receive the information. All requests must be complied with within 20 working days at the latest, unless the information falls within a relevant exemption. It would seem that the more documents a Local Authority makes available as part of its publication scheme, the less chance there will be of an individual making a request for information that is not covered on the list. If work is put into compiling a thorough, detailed publication scheme initially, this may save the work involved in replying to requests at a later date, when the local Authority will face a race against time to provide the reply.

Clearly the new obligations will require the dedication of a considerable amount of time and resources. However the following tips should assist a Local Authority with organising itself effectively for FOIA purposes:

1. the appointment of a FOIA compliance officer whose role will be to put into place a policy which ensures that the publication scheme is reviewed periodically so that it is accurate and up to date, and requests are dealt with as efficiently as possible.
2. communicate its obligations to all relevant employees so that they can recognise documents that should be listed on the publication scheme and can identify requests for information.
3. decide whether internal documents, such as policies, should be reviewed as part of FOIA compliance process, to avoid the embarrassment of being required to publish an out-of-date document at a later date.

In a recent statement Information Commissioner Richard Thomas called on the public sector to take the freedom of information more seriously. Many regard FOIA as more important than the 2005 e-government targets and second only behind the Data Protection Act. If that is true Local Authorities need to make sure they have organised procedures in place to comply with FOIA obligations before its too late.