By Lord Irvine of Lairg,
The Lord Chancellor
I am delighted to be able to lay before Parliament the first report on proposals for implementing the Freedom of Information Act.
The year since the Act received Royal Assent on 30 November 2000 has been a busy one for all those involved in preparing for the Act's implementation. Much has been achieved, as is set out in this report. But more needs to be done before the public sector is ready to take on the duties imposed by the Act. I announced on 13 November, in response to a Parliamentary Question from Lord Goodhart, the implementation plan for the Act. That plan will see the Act fully implemented by January 2005, eleven months before the statutory deadline which Parliament has set.
I am announcing, in this report, the formation of an Advisory Group on Implementation which will help drive the message throughout the public sector that the Act requires major cultural change.
Whilst I am encouraged by the progress we have made in this first year since the Act was passed, I recognise that the progress has been preparatory and technical for the most part. I recognise that there is a desire to see tangible evidence of the Act making a difference to people's lives. By the time of the next report, if the demands of the implementation plan have been met, we shall have tangible evidence to report.
I look forward to being able to report that progress in next year's report and in the future reports to come.
The Rt. Hon The Lord Irvine of Lairg
29 November 2001
The Freedom of Information Act received Royal Assent on 30th November 2000. The Act must be fully implemented by 30th November 2005. Some of the provisions of the Act are already in force. These provisions are, by and large, those which are needed in advance of implementation of the Act's main provisions. The provisions in force include those which:
Allow secondary legislation and codes of practice to be made under the Act;
Establish the office of the Information Commissioner and relate to the appointment and period of office of the Information Commissioner;
Allow the Information Commissioner to approve publication schemes and to prepare and approve model publication schemes;
Allow the Commissioner to give advice and to arrange for the dissemination of information about the operation of the Act, about good practice, and any other matters within the scope of her functions under the Act;
Rename the Data Protection Tribunal as the Information Tribunal and enable appointments to be made to it and allow designation of persons to hear appeals against national security certificates under section 60 of the Act;
Are needed as a consequence of the renaming of the Data Protection Commissioner as Information Commissioner and the renaming of the Data Protection Tribunal; and
Require the Information Commissioner to lay an annual report before Parliament on the exercise of her functions under the Act.
Under section 87(1) certain provisions of the Act came into force on Royal Assent, i.e. the 30 November 2000. These are listed below:
| Provisions | Effect |
|---|---|
| Sections 3 to 7, and Schedule 1 | Defines meaning of a public authority; defines a publicly owned company for the purposes of the Act ; and confers upon the Lord Chancellor certain order making powers, for example, to amend by order the list of public authorities in Schedule 1, and to designate as a public authority for the purposes of the Act bodies (or persons) exercising functions of a public nature or providing under contract with a public authority a service whose provision is a function of that authority. |
| Section 8 | Defines what "a request for information" means for the purposes of the Act. |
| Schedule 2, paragraphs 2 and 17 to 22 (and section 18(4) so far as relating to the provisions of Schedule 2 brought into force) | Provisions consequential on the renaming of the Data Protection Commissioner and Tribunal. |
| Sections 19 (insofar as relating to approval of publication schemes) and 20 (insofar as relating to approval and preparation by the Commissioner of model publication schemes) | Confers powers on the Commissioner to approve publication schemes and approve and prepare model schemes, but these two sections are not yet commenced insofar as to place the obligation on public authorities to adopt and maintain schemes. |
| Section 47 (2) to (6) | Places certain duties on and gives certain functions to the Commissioner, including the giving of advice and the dissemination of information about the operation of the Act, about good practice (a term which is defined in subsection (6)), and other matters within her scope. |
| Section 49 | Requires the Commissioner to lay an annual general report before Parliament on the exercise of her functions under the Act and allows her to lay before Parliament any other reports in respect of her functions as she sees fit. |
| Schedule 5, paragraph 4 (and section 67 so far as relating paragraph 4 of Schedule 5) | Inserts a new paragraph 3A in Schedule 1 to the Public Records Act 1958 which confers a power to extend the meaning of "public records". |
| Schedule 6, paragraph 8 (and section 73 so far as relating to that provision) | Extends a transitional exemption in paragraph 2(1) of Schedule 14 to the Data Protection Act 1998. |
| Section 74 | Confers power on the Secretary of State to make provision relating to environmental information to implement the Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters ("the Aarhus Convention"). |
| Section 75 | Confers power on the Lord Chancellor to amend or repeal enactments prohibiting disclosure of information. |
| Sections 78 to 85 | Various miscellaneous and supplemental provisions. |
| Part I of Schedule 8 (and section 86 so far as relating to that part of Schedule 8) | Repeals coming into force. |
| Section 87 | Commencement |
| "and so much of any other provision of the Act as confers power to make any order, regulations or code of practice." |
Certain other provisions came into force on 30 January 2001 (see section 87(2) of the Act). They are:
| Provisions | Effect |
|---|---|
| Section 18 (1) | Renames the Data Protection Commissioner as Information Commissioner |
| Schedule 2: paragraphs 1(1), 3(1), 4, 6, 7, 8(2), 9(2), 10(a), 13(1) and(2), 14(a), 15(1) and (2) (and section 18(4) as far as relating to those provisions of Schedule 2) | Provisions consequential on renaming the Data Protection Commissioner as Information Commissioner. |
| Section 76 and Schedule 7 | Provides for the exchange of information between the Commissioner and specified public sector ombudsmen. |
| Part II of Schedule 8 (and section 86 so far as relating to that Part) | Lists repeals coming into force. |
Section 87(3) and (4) of the Act provides that the remaining provisions of the Act shall come into force five years after the date of Royal Assent (i.e. would come into force on 30 November 2005) unless they have already been brought into force by commencement order(s). There is flexibility to allow different commencement dates for different purposes within the five year period and allowance for savings and transitional provisions to be made.
To date, one commencement order, the Freedom of Information Act 2000(Commencement No. 1) Order 2001 (SI 2001 No. 1637 (C56)) has been made. It came into force on 14 May 2001 and brought into force certain, for the most part, technical provisions which are needed in advance of implementation of the Act's main provisions. They are:
| Provisions | Functions |
|---|---|
| section 18(5), (6) and (7) | Provisions relating to the appointment and period of office of the Information Commissioner |
| section 18(2) and (3), Schedule 2, paragraphs 1(2), 3(2), 5, 8(1), 9(1), 11, 12, 13(3),14(b) and (15)3; and section 18(4) as far as relating to those provisions | Provisions renaming the Data Protection Tribunal as the Information Tribunal and making consequential provision |
| Schedule 2 Paragraph 16 and section 18(4) as far as relating to that provision; Schedule 4, paragraphs 1 and 4, and section 61 as far as relating to those provisions | Provisions enabling appointments to be made to the Information Tribunal of lay members to represent the interests of individuals and public authorities under the Act, and provisions enabling the designation of persons who are capable of hearing appeals under section 60(1) or (4) of the Act and provisions enabling the Secretary of State to make rules for regulating the exercise of the rights of appeal conferred by section 57(1) and (2) and section 60(1) and (4) of the Act |
| Schedule 6, paragraph 1 amending section 7(3) of the DPA; Schedule 6, paragraph 6 amending the exemption in paragraph 3(b) of Schedule 7 to the DPA; Schedule 6, paragraph 7 amending paragraph 10 of Schedule 7 to the DPA; and section 73 as far as relating to these provisions in Schedule 6 | Provisions making minor amendments to the Data Protection Act 1998 |
I announced to the House of Lords on 13 November 2001 that the Freedom of Information Act would be implemented in stages, according to the timetable set out below. The Freedom of Information Act 2000 will be implemented in full by January 2005; eleven months before the deadline set out in section 87(3) of the Act.
The Publication Scheme provisions of the Act will be implemented first, on a rolling programme, according to the timetable shown below.
| November 2002: | Central Government (except the Crown Prosecution Service and the Serious Fraud Office), Parliament, National Assembly for Wales, Non Departmental Public Bodies currently subject to the Code of Practice on Access to Government Information (Part I sections (1),(2),(3), and (5) and some of Part VI of Schedule 1) |
| February 2003: | Local Government (except police authorities) (Part II) |
| June 2003: | Police, police authorities, Crown Prosecution Service, Serious Fraud Office, Armed Forces (Part V not relating to Northern Ireland and Part I (6)) |
| October 2003: | Health Service (Part III relating to England and Wales) |
| February 2004: | Schools, Universities, remaining NDPBs (Part IV relating to England and Wales and some of Part VI) |
| June 2004: | Remaining public authorities |
The individual right of access to information will be brought into force for all public authorities in January 2005.
Public authorities in Northern Ireland will either be required to apply Publication Schemes at the same time as their counterparts in England and Wales, or alternative arrangements will be made. This is a matter for further discussion with the Northern Ireland Assembly.
The House of Commons was informed of the implementation timetable through a written answer to a question to a Parliamentary Secretary of the Lord Chancellor's Department, Michael Wills MP, at the same time as the announcement in the House of Lords.
Copies of the timetable for the implementation of the Freedom of Information Act were placed in the libraries of both Houses.
A substantial programme of work is needed if we are to implement successfully the Freedom of Information Act 2000 across the 70,000 or so public authorities which will be subject to it. To enable a fundamental shift towards greater transparency in public administration the Lord Chancellor and the Information Commissioner have decided to form an Advisory Group on Implementation of the Freedom of Information Act. The group will be jointly chaired by Michael Wills, Parliamentary Secretary for the Lord Chancellor's Department and Mrs Elizabeth France, the Information Commissioner.
Building on the 1999 report of the Advisory Group on Openness in the Public Sector the group will advise the Lord Chancellor on the best practice to adopt and disseminate to public authorities in implementing the FOI Act. The group will ensure that the needs of users are borne in mind consistently as the different sectors of government, the health service, education and law enforcement bodies prepare to put the Act into effect. Gathering evidence and chasing progress, the group will advise on how a cultural shift to greater openness will benefit public authorities through new approaches to managing information.
The Group's terms of reference are:
To provide advice to the Lord Chancellor to assist him in preparing his annual report to Parliament in accordance with section 87(5) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 by:
Monitoring progress on implementation
Identifying best practice in information management and recommending approaches to its dissemination in and between types of public authorities
Advising on the needs of users of the Freedom of Information Act, how authorities might best meet those needs, and proposing ways of raising the public's awareness of their rights.
Receiving reports on, and advising on, the preparations being made by the Information Commissioner to ensure procedures are established and guidance produced in a timely manner
Promoting a new culture of transparency in public authorities by assisting in the development of training and education programmes
To undertake other tasks related to the implementation of the Freedom of Information Act as may be agreed by the Lord Chancellor and the Information Commissioner.
The group will meet at least three times a year until the Act is fully implemented.
Membership of Advisory Group
The representative organisations invited to join the Advisory Group on Implementation of the Freedom of Information Act are:
Representatives from the Newspaper Society, National Consumer Council and the trades union movement will also contribute their knowledge of what users of the Act will need in order to take advantage of their rights.
The work of the Group will also be assisted by individual experts including;
Overall responsibility for implementation of the Freedom of Information Act rests with me as Head of the Department with lead responsibility for the legislation. I chair the cabinet sub-committee on Freedom of Information and Data Protection, which has representatives from all central Government Departments.
Two interdepartmental officials groups have been set up to support the Ministerial committee. The Senior Group on Data Protection and Freedom of Information consists of those senior officials from across Whitehall, and the Devolved Administrations, who have responsibility for implementing Freedom of Information and Data Protection legislation in their organisation. The group meets every three months and has been set up to look at major implementation questions affecting central government. High-level involvement helps to ensure that the implementation of the Freedom of Information Act is not treated as a purely technical, record keeping related, issue. The Group's remit also extends to the Data Protection legislation which is intrinsically linked to Freedom of Information. This joint approach is intended to facilitate a strategic approach to implementation of the Freedom of Information Act.
The Senior Group is supported by the Practitioner's Group on Freedom of Information. It consists of officials with day to day knowledge of Open Government and implementation of Freedom of Information in their respective Departments. Most representatives on this group are the implementation team leaders in their respective organisations. The function of the group is to address common issues related to the implementation of the legislation. The group also acts as a forum for sharing best practice and helps to ensure consistency in approach across central Government.
The groups are chaired by senior officials in the Lord Chancellor's Department. Both groups help to broaden ownership of the legislation, emphasise cross-departmental working and focuses departmental efforts in a coherent and purposeful fashion. This is important as each organisation is expected to implement the legislation in their own organisation.
I will be advised on implementation by the Advisory Group, details of which appear in Chapter 3 of this report.
Similar groups have been set up within Departments and with their sponsored Non-Departmental Public Bodies. More detail of these structures and examples of best practice can be found in Section 4.4 of this report.
Initial work on the secondary legislation required under the Act is already underway. As this section shows, there is still much to be done and future developments will accord with the requirements of the timetable included in this report.
Code of Practice under section 45
Section 45 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 requires the Lord Chancellor to "issue, and from time to time revise," a code of practice setting out practices which he considers public authorities should follow in the discharge of their duties under Part I of the Act dealing with requests for information. The same section also sets out what the Code must cover.
Working drafts of the code have been circulated to government departments and other public sector organisations for comments.
Comments received on the draft published on the website are currently being evaluated. It is intended that a revised draft, which will also take into account the transfer of responsibility for Freedom of Information policy to the Lord Chancellor in June 2001, will be available for formal consultation, as required by the Act, before the end of the year. It will also be published on the Lord Chancellor's Department website.
Code of Practice under section 46
Section 46 of the Act requires the Lord Chancellor to issue, and from time to time revise, a code of practice setting out:
The practices which public authorities, and other bodies subject to the Public Records Act 1958 and the Public Records Act (NI) 1923, should follow in managing their records; and
The arrangements which public record bodies should follow in the review and transfer of public records to the Public Record Office, places of deposit or the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland.
A working draft of the code has been prepared by the Public Record Office in consultation with other government departments. This version takes account of comments received during a consultation exercise in summer of 2000 and during subsequent circulation to officials, and of the transfer of responsibility for Freedom of Information matters to the Lord Chancellor in June 2001. The code has been agreed at official level and is ready for formal consultation as required by the Act.
Fees Regulations
There are order making powers in sections 9, 12(3), (4) and (5) and 13 which enable the Lord Chancellor to make fees regulations under the Act. The fees regulations must be in place in advance of the implementation of the Act in respect of access rights. However, the early availability of a final draft of the regulations will be valuable to authorities in helping them to prepare for implementation of the Act.
Draft fees regulations have been circulated to government departments and other public sector organisations for both general comment and comments on specific issues. Two drafts of the fees regulations have so far been circulated and, at the time of going to press, the second version of the regulations can be found on the Lord Chancellor's Department website. The comments received on the regulations will almost certainly result in a revision of the draft. Finally, although the Freedom of Information Act itself does not set out any formal consultation requirements on the fees regulations, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury will be consulted.
Review of Statutory Bars
Section 75 of the Act provides a power to repeal or amend legislation which prohibits the disclosure of information (statutory bars). Over 300 separate pieces of legislation containing these statutory bars have been identified and are in the process of being reviewed in consultation with other government departments to establish which provisions may safely be repealed or amended. When consultation has been a completed a list of the bars will be published on the Department's website.
Many of the statutory bars are necessary to fulfil an EC Directive or other international obligation, so it will not be possible to repeal all of the bars. However, a number of bars have already been identified as possible candidates for repeal.
Definition of Welsh Public Authorities
Section 83(2) of the Act provides the power to designate by order any authority as excluded from the definition of Welsh public authority provided in section 83(1)(a). This power is needed to avoid any authorities which are mainly or wholly subject to the exercise of functions by Government Ministers being subject to the National Assembly for Wales when it comes to designating the qualified person for the purposes of section 36 of the Act.
An example of this is the Welsh Traffic Commissioner whose functions are exercisable only or mainly in Wales. The Commissioner therefore meets the definition of a Welsh public authority, but falls under the direct control of the Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions. This situation makes it inappropriate for the National Assembly for Wales to appoint the qualified person.
Departments have been asked to identify candidates for exclusion. The National Assembly for Wales will then be consulted about the candidates before an order to exclude them is made.
Environmental Information Regulations
My Department is in consultation with Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the Department responsible for drafting the regulations, about the introduction of the new regulations. A draft of the Statutory Instrument will be available for consultation in due course.
Tribunal Rules
By virtue of Section 18 of the Act, the Data Protection Tribunal has been renamed the Information Tribunal. Rules of Procedure for the new, extended, Tribunal are being prepared. These new rules will draw upon the existing Data Protection Tribunal Rules and also the model rules of procedure produced by the Council on Tribunals. Consultation will take place, as necessary, before the rules are laid before Parliament in the form of a Statutory Instrument.
The changes introduced by the Freedom of Information Act will also mean a step change in the Tribunal's workload. Consideration is therefore being given to increasing the membership of the Tribunal, as well as arrangements for training both existing and new tribunal members. The Tribunal will also require accommodation and this is being investigated. It will be necessary to have arrangements in place by the time Publication Schemes are introduced as members of the public will be able to apply to the Tribunal if they consider an authority is failing to provide information in accordance with its scheme.
One of the advantages of the Data Protection Commissioner taking on expanded responsibility to oversee the Freedom of Information Act is that the extra costs of setting up a new body specifically to do this were avoided. This does not mean that no preparation is needed. On the contrary, the Office will be more than doubling in size over the next few years.
The Commissioner must be in a position to approve the Publication Schemes of all the authorities covered by the Act. With around 70,000 bodies having to meet this requirement, this is no minor task. Detailed guidance and model schemes will need to be prepared. Guidance on other areas of the Act will also need to be produced and wide consultation undertaken.
The Office of the Information Commissioner has been planning for its expansion since November 1998. The office's planning arrangements anticipate on-going growth over the five-year period to implementation and beyond. In July this year, a second Deputy Commissioner, with responsibility for Freedom of Information, was appointed to manage work on the implementation of the Act. Further staff in all areas, including legal, compliance and organisational staff, are being planned for, recruited and trained.
The Information Commissioner and the Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration are co-ordinating on areas of overlap between their jurisdictions. The Office is also liaising closely with the team preparing the Scottish Freedom of Information Bill about the implications the Scottish regime will have on the work of the Office.
The Office of the Information Commissioner is itself subject to the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act and, like other public authorities, has been engaged in making the appropriate preparations. The Office also has a £5 million IT modernisation programme to facilitate its additional responsibilities. A draft version of the Office's own publication scheme is accessible on their website.
Consultation on Publication Schemes
The Office of Information Commissioner's work in preparation for the implementation of the Freedom of Information Act over the past year has primarily focused on publication schemes. A consultation on publication schemes took place earlier this year, the responses to which are being analysed. Responses from the consultation will be taken together with feedback from the pilot schemes, outlined below, so that by early next year a substantial body of opinion and experience will be available for drawing up guidance and firm criteria for approving schemes.
Pilot Publication Schemes
In the run up to the implementation of the Freedom of Information Act the Information Commissioner is liaising with five public authorities to set up and run pilot publication schemes. These bodies in the pilot are all to be included in the first phase of implementation. Whilst some participants are further advanced in their preparations than others are, the Commissioner is pleased with the progress made by each of them.
At the time of going to print three of the five organisations involved in the Commissioner's publication scheme pilot have already published their schemes. They can be found on line at:
The remaining two organisations, The Ministry of Defence and the Health and Safety Executive are working closely with the Office of Information Commissioner and publication of their schemes is expected before the end of the year.
Experience of the implementation of Freedom of Information legislation overseas and of the Human Rights Act here in the UK has demonstrated that effective preparation is the key to successful implementation. The Freedom of Information Act makes significant changes to the relationship between public authorities and the information they hold. Significant change requires leadership and training. It requires administrative systems that facilitate the retrieval of information as well as active promotion of the right to information and an appeals system to underpin the citizen's right to information.
The legislation is wide-ranging. It covers approximately 70,000 public authorities. Each of these public authorities must make preparations to ensure their own compliance with the Act's requirements. Since the Act received Royal Assent in November last year, preparations have started to ensure that they will be ready to meet the demands required of them.
Organisations covered by the Act have been looking at the action they will have to take to be ready for Freedom of Information. They have been assessing what will be the most effective organisational structures for planning and implementation they will need for their organisation to successfully meet the Act's requirements. In many cases the implications of the act will also require new administrative procedures to be planned for and adopted.
The Act also places a duty on public authorities covered by the Act to produce a publication scheme. The demands of the Act will also have implications for records management procedures too and preparations have to be made to ensure that those procedures are in line with the Lord Chancellor's Code of Practice under section 46 of the Act. Finally, as with the Human Rights Act, large amounts of training and awareness raising has been planned for and is, in many places, already underway.
For this report, Public Authorities were asked to give details of the steps they have taken under each of the following headings. Central Government Departments were asked to report for the Non-Departmental Public Bodies they sponsor and other public authorities were represented by umbrella organisations.
As can be seen from the summaries and best practice examples below, approaches and progress varies, and some authorities are further ahead than others. In some the emphasis is on information management, in others customer service is the driver and most are working to ensure that the synergies between preparation for the implementation of the Freedom of Information Act and initiatives, many under the Modernising Government banner, are maximised. Naturally there is still much to do, however, the timetable outlined in this report will do much to clarify, and push forward, the realisation of authorities' implementation plans.
Culture Change, Training and Awareness
The Freedom of Information Act is a tool for culture change. It is challenged with the task of reversing the working premise that everything is secret unless otherwise stated to a position where everything is public unless it falls in to specified excepted cases. Such culture change requires more than just legislation; it takes time and effort.
In the New Year Michael Wills MP, a Parliamentary Secretary at the Lord Chancellor's Department will be leading a series of road-shows on the Act. The series will start with a Ministerial seminar in January 2002. Experts from the Advisory Group on Implementation will also be involved in the events. Other training will be continuing as planned by organisations with officials from the Lord Chancellor's Department actively involved.
The nature of training will vary according to the needs of the staff and organisation concerned. All staff will need a general level of awareness of the legislation and in many cases this awareness-raising training is already underway. More specialised training will be required for decision makers and advanced training is needed for the organisation's key local experts. Training must address immediate needs but must also be on-going to ensure that all officials have the appropriate skills required of them and that this remains so.
Commitment at a senior level within organisations will be very important in achieving change. Whitehall has recognised this and, as outlined in Chapter 4.1 of this report, has set up the Senior Group on Freedom of Information and Data Protection. Many Departments, and other organisations, have been organising seminars and presentations on Freedom of Information for senior staff. In many cases these have been provided by officials from the Lord Chancellor's Department and the Office of the Information Commissioner.
However, it is realised by most central government departments that all staff will need some form of training. Most bodies are working to build in a Freedom of Information element in induction and core training courses. Training is also being undertaken specifically in the area of records management.
Departmental Intranets, members' websites and staff magazines are key to many of the awareness raising strategies. These are also proving to be excellent for the provision of guidance and feature in most organisations' training planning.
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Case Study: HMT & The Bank of England |
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At the Treasury they have begun to raise awareness of the implications of the Act and to encourage teams to think about how they need to change the way they work. Their Management Board level 'Champion' has written to all team leaders about the impact of the Act and the need to plan for its implementation and had re-circulated the Open Government Code in order to raise awareness of existing requirements. A speaker from the Irish Ministry of Finance was invited to address a seminar at the Treasury on the Irish experience of Freedom of Information. The staff magazine also ran an article about the talk. Officials from the Lord Chancellor's Department Freedom of Information and Data Protection Division are also speaking at Treasury events. The content of their existing induction and public policy courses have been reviewed to ensure that Open Government and Freedom of Information are appropriately covered and to ensure that the Code, and in due course the Act, are mainstreamed into the way they do business. They are also planning to introduce a new course dealing with correspondence, which will include Freedom of Information elements. Staff in the Freedom of Information Unit at the Treasury have attended various seminars and conferences on Freedom of Information. Like many Departments, they are planning to provide awareness training for all staff with more detailed training for those staff who will be dealing with requests for information. The Bank of England envisage using a computer-based training package as a tool for ensuring that all Bank staff have adequate briefing and training on Freedom of Information matters. |
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Case Study: Department of Work and Pensions |
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Part of the plan in this department is to conduct awareness raising by commencing a comprehensive internal publicity campaign. They have recently conducted a poster campaign on the Open Government Code and personal information and hope to use posters as well as other media as vehicles in the future. |
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Case Study: Department for Education and Skills |
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Like many authorities DfES have used their internal intranet as a tool for providing procedural guidance and training. In this case, however, they will be launching two innovative online PowerPoint presentations on their site. One version will be used for awareness training. It will have speaking notes and teams will be encouraged to make use of it for cascade training. The other will be a version specifically designed as a self-learning tool. |
Organisational Responsibilities, Structures and Planning
To meet the requirements of the Act, public authorities will have to put structures in place in order to plan for implementation of the Act in the short term and to ensure compliance with the strictures of the Act in the longer term. All Government Departments have appointed a management board level 'Champion' for Freedom of Information and an Implementation Team Leader. Other structures, such as networks of Open Government Co-ordinators, have also been set up in many authorities to better facilitate full implementation of the Act.
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Case Study: Department for Education and Skills |
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The Department has adopted an integrated approach in line with the suggestions made by the Advisory Group on Openness in the Public Sector. They have grouped related activities around the common themes of openness and accountability, along with protection and disclosure of information. Their Library and Information Services Team has responsibility for policy, advice and guidance on these areas that include Freedom of Information, Data Protection, copyright, records management and the Department's Information Asset Register. This team is part of the Information Services Division in the Department, which also deals with Modernising Government and Information Age Government. This helps to create close links with these related work areas. The Division is placed organisationally within Corporate Services and Development Directorate. The Director of this, as the Information Age Champion, is also the Freedom of Information Champion and the Department's representative on the Senior Group on Freedom of Information and Data Protection. |
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Case Study: Universities UK |
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Universities UK, formerly the Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals of the Universities of the United Kingdom, are assembling a working party drawn from other representative bodies in higher education. Members will include, the Standing Conference of Principals, which represents non-university institutions of higher education, the Association of Heads of University Administration, which comprises Registrars and Secretaries. The working party will consider the requirements of the Act, its implications for institutions of higher education, and offer guidance where this may be thought helpful, to enable individual institutions to adopt or adapt the guidance to meet their individual circumstances. |
Administrative Procedures
The legislation places some stringent requirements on authorities. Not least of these is the requirement to deal with all requests within 20 working days of receipt. Many authorities will have to put in place administrative procedures to ensure that they meet this deadline.
Procedures that departments are setting up include arrangements for refusal of requests and consideration of the public interest; central co-ordination or otherwise of requests and the transferral of requests within Departments. Public authorities may also want to consider their policy on consultation with third parties where appropriate. Some organisations are producing guidance for their members. For example, the Local Government Association in conjunction with the Constitution Unit of University College London, have recently published their practical guide to the Freedom of Information Act for Local Authorities.
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Case Study: The Ministry of Defence |
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The Ministry of Defence have concluded that, because of the size of their Department and the likely volume of requests that they will receive, it will not be feasible to have a central co-ordination point for FOI requests within MoD. Instead, they intend to produce central guidance on handling procedures and key principles such as consultation with third parties with the help of the s45 Code of Practice. Against the background of this central policy direction, the MoD have decided also to establish local administrative procedures for handling requests to cater for the specific situation within each management area. The central policy team on Freedom of Information will perform an overall co-ordination role, acting as a back-stop for requests that fall outside the usual channels, and run the appeal mechanism. |
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Case Study: HM Customs and Excise |
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Their new systems will mirror the way the Department currently deals with subject access requests under the Data Protection legislation. They are in the process of developing an agreed system for answering requests as well as policy and procedures for applying exemptions and the public interest test to ensure that they are consistently applied. Customs and Excise intend to consult, test, evaluate and adjust these procedures before full implementation. Consultation on these arrangements is planned with other Departments that they work closely with, such as the Inland Revenue, and other external bodies. Workshops are taking place in each work area to assess the impact of the Act and work that will be required to meet those demands. |
Publication Schemes
A genuine open and active information policy will not just sit back and wait for requests for information to come in, but will look actively at how people can be offered information. Section 19 places a duty on every public authority to adopt and maintain a Publication Scheme. Publication Schemes give details of the classes of information that an authority publishes proactively and how. The plans indicate a commitment to proactively publish as much information as possible and will look at how best to transmit the information to those who need to know more. Many implementation teams are looking at the enormous potential for IT in this area.
As detailed in Chapter 4.3, earlier this year the Information Commissioner conducted a consultation on Publication Schemes and is also, currently, conducting a pilot of Publication Schemes with five organisations. Public authorities and umbrella organisations are keeping a close watch on these developments and are awaiting the outcome of the consultation exercise.
Initial work has been carried out in many authorities. Most are looking at the types of information that could be included in their Publication Scheme. To help do this, many public authorities have conducted an authority-wide survey to establish and list what information they already publish on a regular or ad-hoc basis. They often found that lots of information was already available, often via the internet, on departmental websites. Many bodies, such as the National Assembly of Wales, have already made firm commitments to proactively publish as much information as possible.
Many departments are using the Information Asset Register initiative as the foundation for the publication schemes. HMSO in the Cabinet Office take the lead on the Information Asset Register (IAR) initiative. The IAR lists information resources held by the UK Government. The Office of the Information Commissioner and HMSO are working together to co-ordinate the work on Publication Schemes and that on the IAR. The Consultation papers on Publication Schemes from the Information Commissioner highlight the work of the IAR and the contribution it can make to the development of Publication Schemes. More information about the Information Asset Register is available from Her Majesty's Stationery Office website.
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Case Study: The Charity Commission |
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The Commission are already publishing more of their decisions, particularly when there is considerable public interest. Recent decisions include that to reject an application for registration as a charity from the Church of Scientology (England and Wales), and that to recognise the charitable status of the General Medical Council. They have also published recent reports of their enquiries into charities. |
Records Management
The timetable that the Government has adopted enables Departments to take full advantage of the current Electronic Records Management initiative. The Modernising Government White Paper set a target of 2004 for all government organisations to manage their records electronically. This initiative will enable participating bodies to update their record keeping to meet the demands of the Act and it reinforces the importance of good records management to successful implementation of the Act.
Significant progress has already been made in this area. The role and value of information have previously tended to be underestimated. However the advent of the Information Age and the existence of this Act itself indicate a growing awareness of the importance of information. All this means that the Freedom of Information Act will make records management a much higher priority in each authority than previously.
Advances in new technology have both positively and negatively affected record management practices in the public sector. The provisions of the Act require requests for information to be met within specific and demanding time limits. It is therefore important that decision-makers have rapid access to the records sought. This requirement has led many organisations to overhaul and modernise their records keeping procedures.
Many Departments have tied this essential work into other central government initiatives such as Electronic Records Management by making their programme Freedom of Information Act compliant. In many cases, part of the business case for Electronic Records Management projects is to facilitate effective information retrieval for Freedom of Information purposes. Work on Freedom of Information also ties in well with other modernising agendas such as the government's commitment that by 2005 100% of dealings with the government should be available electronically and this will help drive the implementation process.
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Case Study: The Home Office |
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In addition to the work on the Information Asset Register, Metadata Standards and an Inventory of Electronic Records, the Home Office is conducting an audit of record management throughout the Department. The first stage of the audit is the issue of a questionnaire that will enable business units to assess the degree to which their record keeping procedures comply with the Code of Practice on Records Management. Record Management Services staff will follow this up with a programme of visits to areas where advice and assistance are required. In addition, as part of the Home Office training programme, presentations and awareness-raising seminars on the Freedom of Information Act, stress the absolute importance of accurate, reliable and accessible records. In the Home Office, awareness raising briefing on the Act also describes the impact that the legislation will have on the production, use and storage of information and the beneficial effect on the quality of public service that results. |
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Case Study: The Department of Trade and Industry |
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The Department is in the process of introducing a new department-wide electronic records management system - Matrix. The introduction of Matrix will result in significant changes to the way their staff store and retrieve information. Matrix will be instrumental in helping the Department fulfil Freedom of Information obligations, particularly in meeting the 20 working day deadline for responses. The unit responsible for Freedom of Information has been working in close partnership with the Matrix implementation team to ensure that there is appropriate synergy between both implementation initiatives. For example, Freedom of Information awareness and guidance messages have been built into the new system itself and the compulsory training on the Matrix system for all staff incorporates Freedom of Information references to ensure that staff recognise the importance of sound records management to Freedom of Information Act compliance. |
The timetable for implementing the Freedom of Information Act set out in this report ensures that we have the necessary time required to put into effect the change in culture required to ensure that the legal rights are delivered in practice.
We have drawn up a programme of change to make full use of this time. My Parliamentary Secretary at the Lord Chancellor's Department, Michael Wills MP, will be leading the change process. Chapter Three announced the formation of an Advisory Group on the Implementation of the Act which will be jointly chaired by Michael Wills and Mrs Elizabeth France, the Information Commissioner. The Group will advise the Lord Chancellor on the best practice to adopt and disseminate to public authorities in implementing the Act. It will also help monitor progress towards implementation of the Act across the public sector and advise on the needs of users of the legislation.
In addition, as mentioned in section 4.4 of this report, Michael Wills has planned a series of road shows for the new year. These will raise awareness of the Act at a strategic level in public authorities and will take place at locations around the country.
The road-shows will follow on from a Ministerial seminar on Freedom of Information being held in January 2002 and will run till the end of the April. However, the Government recognises that as implementation of the Act progresses, training at a more detailed level will be required for those who will operate the Act in practice. To meet the demand for more detailed knowledge, a further series of road-shows will be held in the Autumn of next year.
Government Ministers will also have a key role to play in the implementation process. A Ministerial Group oversees this programme of culture change. The group will meet between two and three times a year to review the progress that has been made towards implementation. This group will help ensure that this challenging timetable is on kept on track.
These initiatives do not stand alone. They will complement the work of the 70,000 or so public authorities covered by the Act. This report contains examples of the work that is already underway and I am certain that in subsequent years I will be able to report on the progress and eventual success of these and other plans to deliver these important new rights.