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FOI and DP: Monthly UpdateIf you would like to be notified when monthly updates are put online, please email constitution@ucl.ac.uk. Comments and feedback, and ideas for future monthly updates, are also very welcome.
Freedom of information in the UKGovernment response to Dacre Review
Secret government papers are to be released after a delay of 20 years in a change from the current 30-year rule, the Ministry of Justice has announced. The recommendation fell short of the 15 years suggested by a review set up by Gordon Brown. MOJ said the new period struck the right balance between accountability and the need to protect information which, if released prematurely, would harm good government. It argued that a 20-year rule would protect the neutrality of the civil service where official careers stretching more than 15 years are common, and would minimise distraction for ministers. The shift will be brought in gradually over ten years to allow about two million paper files to be transferred to the National Archives – double the volume of old government records released each year. The government estimates the cost of implementing the new rule will be about £28 million for the first five years. The Campaign for Freedom of Information group welcomed the change and the decision to ditch proposals to exempt cabinet papers from the Freedom of Information Act. The group however expressed its disappointment at a new absolute exemption that will protect information about the monarch, the heir and second in line to the throne for twenty years and then, if the individual concerned is still alive, until five years after their death. The government is rejecting increasing numbers of freedom of information requests according to a report published by Sweet & Maxwell. Some 22 per cent of FOI requests were refused in the most recent three-month period on record, up from 18 per cent in 2005, the first full year that the Freedom of Information Act came into force. There was however disparity across public bodies in disclosing information, with the Cabinet Office refusing 51 per cent of requests in the third quarter of 2009, and the Ministry of Defence refusing only 8 per cent. Marcus Turle, the author of Freedom of Information Manual published by Sweet & Maxwell, said government departments were not always attuned to the motion of the public's ‘right to know’ as enshrined in the FOI Act. Mr Turle said “Public-sector bodies are increasingly refusing to disclose information or dragging their feet over dealing with requests as a way of managing their reputations”. The Meteorological Office is resisting scrutiny of the role played by its top climate scientist in a report by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The Met Office is refusing to disclose Professor John Mitchell’s working papers and correspondence with his IPCC colleagues in response to requests filed under the Freedom of Information Act by David Holland, an electrical engineer who has written several papers questioning orthodox thinking on global warming. The block has been endorsed in writing by Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth – whose department has responsibility for the Met Office. The Met Office said that Professor Mitchell’s records could not be disclosed because they were ‘personal’, because disclosure would ‘inhibit the free and frank provision of advice or the free and frank provision of views’, and because it would ‘prejudice Britain’s relationship with an international organisation’. Last month, the Information Commissioner ruled that scientists from the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia – who are also contributors to the work of the IPCC – acted unlawfully in refusing to process FOI requests in accordance with Section 77 of the Act. Councils are alleged to have resisted a Government order to reveal the salaries of thousands of senior staff over fears it would lead to a public backlash. In December it was announced that councils would have to disclose the full details of staff earning more than £150,000 a year - believed to be about 114 staff across the country. Following an FOI request, the Taxpayers Alliance claimed that council bosses fought against the initial ruling as it feared disclosures would put workers' children and personal safety at risk. Campaigners fighting to win compensation for former Bradford & Bingley shareholders are demanding the release of information about the bank’s nationalisation in September. They want to use the Freedom of Information Act to force ministers to reveal the detailed sequence of events that led to the state takeover of B&B’s mortgage business and the sale of its branch and savings arm to Spanish bank Santander. David Blundell, chairman of the Bradford & Bingley Shareholders’ Action Group, which now has 15,000 members, said the nationalisation and break-up of B&B had been a “terrible and costly mistake”, and has written to the Information Commissioner to ask him to disclose the information. Continued from last month’s update: The government has decided to fight the information commissioner's instruction to release the minutes of the controversial cabinet meeting in 1986 preceded Michael Heseltine resigning from Margaret Thatcher's government. The commissioner backed Martin Rosenbaum’s freedom of information request for the minutes on the basis that releasing them would help remove uncertainties over historical events, but the Cabinet Office has now appealed against this judgement to the Information Rights Tribunal. The Arts Council England has rejected a freedom of information request from the BBC because it intends to publish the material by sixteen months from now. Julia Ross asked the Council for some data relating to A Night Less Ordinary, their scheme for providing free theatre tickets to people under 26 at selected venues in England. The Arts Council turned down her FOI application about the scheme's cost and the characteristics of those participating in it on the grounds that it "intends to publish this information by June 2011". While the Scottish FOI law lays down that the ‘future publication’ exemption can only apply if the material requested is to be published within 12 weeks, no such maximum period is specified in the UK legislation. The Ministry of Defence has released more than 6,000 pages describing people’s experiences with unidentified flying objects between 1994 and 2000. The UFO encounters are revealed in the fifth installment of documents released as part of a three-year project between the MoD and The National Archives, and include reports of a UFO hovering over former Conservative Home Secretary Michael Howard's home in 1997. A memo has also revealed that in addition to the deletion of comments on international relations and defence technology appearing in the files, defence officials' insulting remarks about the public had to be blanked out before they were made public. The Ministry of Defence (MoD) recorded UFO sightings from the end of the Second World War until it shut its special investigation unit on 1 December last year. Freedom of information and ParliamentFOI reveals Ashcroft’s non-dom status Conservative donor and deputy chairman Lord Ashcroft has admitted he does not pay UK tax on earnings outside Britain, ending years of questions from opponents about whether he was ‘non-domiciled’ in the UK for tax. Lord Ashcroft made a statement on his website in anticipation of the release by the Cabinet Office of documents showing the promise he made to the government when he was made a peer in 2000 to "take up permanent residence in the UK again". Christopher Graham, the Information Commissioner, had accused the Tory party of being "evasive and obfuscatory" on the issue when he ruled that the Cabinet Office should reveal the details of the promise Ashcroft was known to have made at the time of his ennoblement. Labour MP Gordon Prentice made the FOI request about Ashcroft’s status in June 2008. He has now called for Ashcroft’s resignation from the House. Our current FOI and Parliament study is looking at cases like this to understanding how FOI fits into the ‘toolkit’ of MPs. Torture documents released Foreign Secretary David Miliband has lost an appeal court bid to prevent senior judges disclosing secret information relating to torture allegations in the case of Binyam Mohamed, the former Guantanamo detainee allegedly tortured by the CIA while he was being held in Pakistan. Andrew Tyrie MP, chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Extraordinary Rendition, said the UK appears to have allowed itself to become complicit in torture, and asked Mr Miliband to back a judge-led inquiry. The APPGER has been pursuing information about the UK’s role in extraordinary rendition through both the UK and US FOI laws for years. Lord Justice Thomas and Mr Justice Lloyd Jones had wanted to disclose a summary of US intelligence information given to British security services in May 2002 about Mr Mohamed’s treatment during interrogations by the Americans. Mr Miliband had argued that to disclose the information would damage vital transatlantic security co-operation, but the Court of Appeal rejected the minister’s claims and appeal, and a few minutes later the seven paragraphs in question were published by the FCO, albeit in a redacted form. Commons resists publishing MPs’ unpaid bills Hundreds of MPs are believed to be liable for large tabs in the restaurants and bars in the Palace of Westminster, many running to thousands of pounds. Commons authorities have resisted a FOI request asking for a more detailed breakdown about the money owed. After months of delays, the ICO has written to the Commons demanding the release of the details or an explanation why it is refusing to do so. Criminal investigation over Heathrow expansion emails THE Department for Transport (DfT) is facing a criminal investigation following a complaint that it deleted sensitive internal emails about the expansion of Heathrow airport. It is accused of disposing of emails to and from the airport’s operator, BAA, between September and November 2007 as the government prepared to push through its controversial plans for a third runway. The deletion or concealment of records to prevent disclosure under the FOI Act is a criminal offence, and the investigation unit of the Information Commissioner’s Office has asked to interview civil servants at the DfT. The emails were requested under by Justine Greening, a Conservative frontbencher, who has led the campaign against the expansion. Ms Greening asked for an investigation after spotting gaps in email conversations between transport officials and BAA. BAA is not covered by the Act and staff are therefore not required to retain material, but they are to be interviewed about the missing emails. Conservatives allege civil servants’ neutrality damaged The Conservatives have accused Labour special advisers of abusing their position by commissioning civil servants to produce work for the purpose of attacking the Conservative Party, after uncovering evidence through the use of Freedom of Information requests. Legg acquiesces to Harman’s demands on expenses claims The Daily Express claims Harriet Harman put pressure on auditor Thomas Legg not to reveal MPs’ expenses claims which were rejected, citing minutes released under the Freedom of Information Act. Sir Thomas Legg, who conducted the audit of expenses, wanted to include in his report all claims, including those that were rejected by officials, but the Deputy leader argued in a meeting with Sir Thomas that to do so would be “inappropriate”. When Sir Thomas released his report this month, he only mentioned those claims which were paid out. Scottish government seeks alternative to Electoral Commission The Scottish government plans to set up a special body to run a future referendum on independence, minutes of meetings which were obtained by the BBC from an FOI request have shown. Ministers do not want to use the Electoral Commission which overseas Westminster elections. The Electoral Commission has a statutory role to run referenda called by Westminster, but has no formal role in those called by the Scottish Parliament. In the minutes obtained by BBC One's Politics Show, civil servants told the commission they planned to set up a new body - the Scottish Referendum Commission - to run the election. The paperwork also revealed the concerns of the Westminster commission over the wording of the questions and that the timescale towards the poll was too short. Freedom of information abroadAustralia A coalition of news media has questioned the Australian Government’s commitment to transparency, saying its freedom of information overhaul should go further. The Senate’s public administration committee is inquiring into the Rudd government’s FOI bills, which will give the public more access to documents held by the bureaucracy. Australia’s Right to Know spokesman Michael McKinnon told the Senate the public should have access to cabinet advice, as New Zealand law allows. Mr McKinnon said while Cabinet deliberations should remain secret, the information put before Cabinet should be more freely accessible to the public. The proposed laws will also create an independent information commissioner to review FOI disputes and encourage public servants to be less secretive. The Rudd Government has said it will appoint current Commonwealth Ombudsman and Australian National University professor John McMillan to the role when the Bill is passed. The Government of New South Wales has meanwhile been accused of inaction in the long-promised overhaul of its freedom of information regime. The Parliament passed new legislation last June, but the inaugural Information Commissioner has yet to take up his duties and the Act has not come into force.
India Indian FOI Advocates are calling for a thorough investigation into the murder of Satish Shetty , believed to be the first person murdered in retaliation for FOI activism. Mr Shetty, 38, was killed by three unidentified men on the morning of 13 January in Talegaon, Pune. He had been actively using Indian’s Right to Information legislation to expose land scams, tax evasion and government corruption. He worked on spreading awareness about the Right to Information legislation and was a popular figure among Talegaon residents who regularly sought his help for solving their problems. According to Anna Hazare, one of India’s most renowned social activists, Shetty was killed “simply because he used RTI to unearth corruption and in the process antagonised the vested interests of the powerful. The clear message that the killers want to send out is that nobody should dare to do what Satish did. This is frightening and can cause a serious setback to RTI movement.” You can read a general assessment of how Indian’s RTI Act is working by Alastair Roberts here. Meanwhile, a series of freedom of information applications filed with the Indian Environment Ministry and the Prime Minister's office has revealed that Indian Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh are not updated on international developments on climate change, because no mechanism exists to offer advisories or science briefs to the PMO on the latest developments. The Ministry of Environment on its part stated in its replies that all scientific literature is noted but when provided with a list of notable scientific papers, analyses and climate events and asked to cite the number of references to them in Ministry documents, they failed to produce a single record. Instead, the ministry repeatedly cited the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report as the most credible scientific information on climate science. . Africa Media leaders, press freedom advocates, officials, and former U.S. President Jimmy Carter have met in Ghana at the African Regional Conference on the Right of Access to Information. They have released the a Plan of Action to advance the right of access to information in Africa. The conference, which took place in Accra, Ghana, from February 7-9, examined the specific the political and institutional constraints in Africa that have limited the opportunities to exercise the right to know. However, in Uganda, a ruling this week in a case against two journalists seeking disclosure of multinationals’ oil deals has highlighted the challenges to public transparency in the continent. Freedom to information is upheld by the African Charter on Human and People's Rights. The Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression in Africa explicitly states: “Public bodies hold information not for themselves but as custodians of the public good and everyone has a right to access this information, subject only to clearly defined rules established by law.” However, to date only five countries in sub-Saharan Africa (Uganda, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe – whose FOI law has been criticised as deeply flawed - South Africa, and Angola) have passed freedom of information legislation, according to Mukelani Dimba, the deputy chief executive officer of the South Africa-based Open Democracy Advice Centre. The Government of Ghana has meanwhile tabled a draft Freedom of Information law for adoption in Parliament. Article 19 – an independent human rights organisation that works globally to protect and promote the right to freedom of expression – welcomes the draft law, but recommends a number of changes. The Ghana National Coalition on the Right to Information has expressed concern over the manner in which the government is rushing to pass the Right to Information Bill, allegedly without regard to due constitutional process as enshrined in the 1992 Constitution. Canada Federal ministers in Canada have been warned by the Prime Minister against subverting Canada's FOI law after a political aide at Public Works ordered a sensitive document withheld from a media requester. The Canadian Province of British Columbia (BC) has meanwhile been accused of operating confusing and contradictory freedom of information rules with regard to the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics. The BC government has for example refused to include the organising body for the Games under the Freedom of Information law. United States A government-run agency in Poland has for the first time provided official records confirming the landing in Poland of planes associated with the CIA's secret detainee programme, two human rights groups have said. Flight logs provided by the Polish Air Navigation Services Agency under a Freedom of Information Act revealed details about at least six landings from February-September 2003 of jets linked to the CIA at a former military airport in northern Poland. Meanwhile in the USA, several prominent human rights groups have claimed that new documents released under FOI illustrate that key congressional members from both houses were briefed numerous times about the CIA interrogation and detention programs, but abdicated the role of Congress in overseeing the activities. The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit against the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to obtain public documents detailing its overseas abstinence-only-until-marriage programs, which a recent Office of Inspector General's report says unconstitutionally promote religiously infused materials and messages. The ACLU is demanding from USAID materials related to its abstinence-only-until-marriage programs funded through HIV/AIDS grants, including requests for proposals, contracts with USAID, curricula used by grantees, communications between USAID and the White House and communications between USAID and its grantees about religious instruction in abstinence-only-until-marriage curricula. Dramatic images taken by police photographers in helicopters of the collapse of the World Trade Centre have been seen publicly for the first, having been released under a Freedom of Information request made by America's ABC News. Five Silicon Valley companies - Google, Apple, Oracle, Yahoo and Applied Materials - have fought and won a 18-month Freedom of Information battle with the San Jose Mercury News, convincing federal regulators that releasing information about the race and gender of employees would cause them ’commercial harm’. Russia Regional governments in the Russian Federation are failing to live up to their promise to make Russian politics and officialdom more open, according to a new study. The Moscow Institute for the Development of Freedom of Information surveyed the 185 websites that executive and legislative branches in Russia’s regions have set up, to determine whether the sites were living up to the provisions of a new federal law that calls for such sites to serve as “the most effective means for the dissemination of official information” about the government. The institute evaluated the sites according to 300 indicators, including completeness, timeliness and accessibility and concluded that the sites of the regional executive organs averaged only a 32 per cent openness rating. Russia’s Ensuring Access to Information about Activities of State Organs and Organs of Local Administration Law was passed in January 2009 and came into force in January 2010. The law would, it was hoped, bridge the gap between the right “to freely seek and obtain information about the activities of state organs and organs of local administration,” as proclaimed in Article 29 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, and actual administrative practice. Data ProtectionNew guidance from the ICO The Information Commissioner's Office has published a new report designed to encourage organisations to prioritise data protection best practice. Launched at a Data Protection Officer conference in Manchester, the Privacy Dividend report explains how to put a value on personal information and assess the benefits of protecting privacy. It includes practical tools designed to help organisations prepare a business case for investing in privacy and data protection, including calculation sheets to assess the value of personal information, and guidance on the steps involved in a privacy protection scheme. "No organisation can neglect to protect people's privacy. Not only is it the law, but there is a hard-headed business imperative," said Information Commissioner Christopher Graham. Former ICO Commissioner Richard Thomas has spoken about achievements and challenges in regards to data protection in an interview with SC magazine. Increased penalties for data breaches The House of Lords has approved the Data Protection (Monetary Penalties) Order, which will come into force on 6 April. The ICO will then have power to impose a fine of up to £500,000, instead of the current maximum fine of £5000 for serious data breaches.
Shell employees data leaked to environmental groups The Times has reported that seven (NGOs) have been emailed a database of personal details about all Shell staff. An investigation is under way to ascertain how the personal details of 170,000 employees and contractors of the oil company were leaked. The details have also been posted on an anti-Shell website. Shell has contacted all the NGOs - which include Greenpeace’s American office, Earthrights, Justice in Nigeria Now, Shell Guilty, Friends of the Earth ( Netherlands), Remember Sarowiwa and CCR Justice - with a demand that they delete the database or face legal action under the UK Data Protection Act. Budget cuts impact on data protection A survey by IT firm Sepaton has found forty per cent of the 400 businesses surveyed say they lack the budget to protect their data effectively, particularly in the face of ever-escalating demands for data back-up. More than half (57%) of respondents – all from companies with at least 1,000 employees – said their data stores were expanding by at least 20% a year. Despite this, three-quarters of respondents said their data protection budget would remain flat or fall in 2010. Information Commissioner's Office decisions this monthFor February 2010 decisions, click here Information Tribunal decisions this monthFor February 2010 decisions, click here
This page last modified 7 July, 2010 by v.spence@ucl.ac.uk |
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FOI LIVE 2010, Tuesday 6 July |
