Archived press release

Friends of the Earth fear for freedom of information

14 December 2006

Proposals to allow public authorities to refuse to answer complex or politically sensitive requests for information threatens the Freedom of Information Act, Friends of the Earth said today.

The Government today announced the start of a three month consultation period on proposals that would enable authorities to include the cost of the time spent reading the information, consulting others about it and deciding whether it should be released. It's likely that requests that are complex, sensitive or raise important public interest issues could be refused on cost grounds, regardless of their merits.

Phil Michaels, Head of Legal at Friends of the Earth said:

"The Government's proposalsundermine the effectiveness of the freedom of information.The problem is not that members of the public ask for too much information but that many public authorities are reluctant to release sensitive information and take too long to respond to legitimate requests. Rather than trying to prevent us from accessing information the Government should be encouraging public authorities to improve their own processes so that more information is made available to the public and that requests are answered more quickly. Also the consultation is not full and fair because it fails to ask crucial questions about whether or not change to the system is needed."

BACKGROUND

In October 2006 the government announced proposals to make it easier for public authorities to refuse Freedom of Information requests on cost grounds. The effect of these proposals would be to severely restrict the amount of information that could be obtained under the Act.

At the moment, an FOI request can be refused if the cost of dealing with it exceeds £600 for a government department, or £450 for any other public authority. In calculating whether these limits have been reached authorities can take into account the costs of searching for and extracting the requested information.

The government has also proposed that the cost of unrelated requests made by the same individual or organisation to an authority could be aggregated and refused if their combined cost exceeded the £450 or £600 limits. This could ration the media, campaigning organisations and others to no more than a single request to a particular authority in a three month period.

If you're a journalist looking for press information please contact the Friends of the Earth media team on 020 7566 1649.

Published by Friends of the Earth Trust