The Government has promised to introduce a Freedom of Information Act to end secrecy and increase openness. The Government sees this as a law which will give you the right to information held by the vast majority of public organisations.
As a first step, the Government has published a White Paper - Your Right to Know - which sets out its proposals for a Freedom of Information Act. This leaflet describes what these proposals could mean for you.
As proposed in the White Paper, a Freedom of Information Act would give everyone a legal right to see information held by national, regional and local government and some other organisations working on behalf of government. It would also mean that more information would be published as a matter of course. The aim is to open up public organisations and make the whole of government more accountable to people.
It is proposed that Freedom of Information would apply right across the public sector at national, regional and local level. The Government would like the law to cover:
In addition it should cover:
Under the Government's proposals, the Security and Intelligence services would not be covered by the Act, nor would the Special Forces (SAS and SBS). This is because the Government believes they would not be able to carry out their operations effectively in the interests of the nation if they were subject to a Freedom of Information Act.
The Government proposes to give everyone the right to see records or information held by the organisations listed above.
This would mean that you would have a right to see information held on you, such as your tax, social security, and medical records. You would also have the right to ask the organisations covered by the Act to give you other records or information about their day-to-day business that you might be interested in. For example, more information about food safety, medical safety, pollution and other issues of public interest, would be available.
Your Right to Know sets out ways to help ensure that this wouldn't happen without your consent.
Under the Government's proposals, information about sensitive security and intelligence matters, the personnel files of government employees, and information whose disclosure could undermine crime prevention or the bringing of prosecutions would not be covered under freedom of information law.
The intention is to make all other information available unless it would clearly cause harm to:
In addition any decision, whether to release or refuse information would need to satisfy certain basic tests - for example, is it lawful? - to ensure that it is consistent with the public interest.
In Your Right to Know the Government sets out detailed proposals on how these tests could be used to see whether information can be released.
Yes. The Government would like to give you the right to ask for information. It would also like to see organisations publish more information as a matter of course. The Government proposes that:
Under the proposed law, all you would have to do is write to the public organisation concerned. You may also be able to apply by telephone or E-mail.
Under the Government's proposals, public organisations may charge a small fee to help cover administrative costs when you first made a request for information. The intention is that this should be no more than £10. If your request involved a lot of additional work, an organisation would be entitled to charge for some of the work involved. You would, however, be notified in advance of any charges, so that you could decide whether or not to continue with your request.
The Government intends to appoint an independent and powerful Information Commissioner. If a public organisation refused to give you information and you disagreed with that decision, you would be able to appeal to the Information Commissioner. Appeals would be free and the Information Commissioner could order the organisation to release the information you had asked for.
The Information Commissioner would also be able to investigate complaints about delays in responding to a request and about excessive charges.
The Government's proposals for a Freedom of Information Act are set out in the White Paper