FREEDOM OF INFORMATION

Ministers' promises to usher in a new age of freedom of information have failed to materialise, with scores of requests to open the Government to public scrutiny being rejected. About 4,000 requests have been received across central government since the introduction of the Freedom of Information Act on 1 January. But MPs and journalists expressed frustration at the lack of positive responses to their requests, amid claims that the Government has breached its own legislation by failing to meet the Freedom of Information Act's statutory deadline. Scores of requests have been refused and some departments have been using stock replies to deny access to information, issuing refusal letters to different people using identical wording.

Of the 70 inquiries made by The Independent only 10 have been successful. Almost half were turned down flat; the remainder are still awaiting reply. In two of the replies the Government conceded that it had breached its own legislation by failing to meet the deadline of 20 working days that expired yesterday. Ministers also admitted they had no idea how many of the 362 requests made on the first day the legislation came into force had been answered. Yet, in 2000, Labour postponed the implementation of the Freedom of Information Act by four years to give government departments and 100,000 public bodies more time to prepare for the new right of access.

Conservative frontbenchers have submitted 130 requests for information under the FOI Act. So far they have received only three holding replies. Julian Lewis, the shadow minister for the Cabinet Office, said that, although the Ministry of Defence showed signs of genuine openness, he was discouraged by the amount of time being taken to respond to requests by other departments. "They have gone right down to the wire, taking the full 20 days to reply. I hope the reason they are leaving it to the last minute to answer this question is because they are putting together a lot of information to give to us," he said. "I fear that the delay is just stalling for time before they give us little more than the casual evasive responses to written parliamentary questions."

Norman Baker, the Liberal Democrat MP for Lewes, said the Government was guilty of hypocrisy over its application of the Act. "There is a real suspicion that the Government is using the FOI Act as a deft manoeuvre to imply openness while allowing the Sir Humphreys of this world arcane reasons for not answering questions," he said. "We have yet to see any evidence at all that the Act will make any positive difference as far as the Government is concerned."

That didn't stop Labour hailing the FOI Act a success, calling it the beginning of a new era of openness. Lord Falconer of Thoroton, the Lord Chancellor, said: "This is a new era in the relationship between the citizen and the state. After just one month, the Freedom of Information Act has already been seen to make a real impact ... We have sown the seeds of cultural change towards a government at all levels that is more open, transparent and accountable. But we must remember this is not a free-for-all. There will always be areas, such as national security, where it is necessary for information to be withheld to allow government to act effectively."

That has not been the experience of many members of the public who have spent weeks engaged in a rather tiresome game of cat and mouse with Whitehall officials. One Whitehall source said some civil servants were struggling to deal with the number and complexity of requests. Of 4,000 requests received across central government, about half have been made by people identifying themselves as reporters. But campaigning organisations and members of the public have also made wide use of the new powers. The National Archives has received the most requests, more than 600, followed by the Ministry of Defence and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. (Source: The Independent)

The operation of the Freedom of Information Act is in severe difficulties because of a mounting backlog of appeals against Government secrecy. The Information Commissioner’s Office, which handles complaints from people whose open government requests are refused, is struggling to cope with more than 1,200 unresolved cases. More than half of those appeals have yet to be allocated to a caseworker. The Times is aware of cases that have been with the commissioner for three months without any action being taken. The soaring number of appeals to the watchdog is due, in part, to the work of a Whitehall unit called the Central Clearing House.

Concern is growing that the unit is bent on blocking as many requests for information as it can. Recently it told civil servants that they could chose to “neither confirm nor deny” whether their departments even hold information that has been requested by the public. The commissioner’s staff has been deluged with 1,642 appeals in the past six months and the number is growing at a rate of five a day. There are just 28 full-time and five part-time staff handling the cases. Final judgments have been reached in fewer than 50 cases and another 380 have been withdrawn or resolved. (Source: Times Online)

The government is planning to change its own freedom of information laws barely 18 months after they came into force by blocking 'the most difficult requests' made by the public to Whitehall departments. It suggests that a flat rate fee could be charged which would have a 'deterrent effect' and 'inhibit serial requesters'. Scores of requests for details about sensitive episodes from Labour's nine years in office under the new Freedom of Information Act have already been turned down or dodged.

Tony Blair had to reveal the bill of more than £500,000 which he incurred using the royal plane for holiday flights. Now a paper prepared by Constitutional Affairs Secretary Lord Falconer for circulation to ministers sets out plans to change the system. In the memo, he admits the Government will face criticism for making it harder to access documents. Lord Falconer heralded the freedom of information legislation as a 'giant step forward' in opening up Government as it came into effect. Official figures show there were more than 38,000 FOI requests in its first year of operation.

At present requests are normally free, but public bodies can charge a fee if the cost of compiling a response is unusually high. Central Government departments are entitled to refuse a request if the cost is more than £600, while the limit for local authorities is £450. Lord Falconer suggests the time taken by civil servants to read documents and consider whether they can be released should be taken into account when calculating the cost of requests. He said the change would allow 'the most difficult requests (generally received from determined and experienced rather than casual requestors) to be refused on cost grounds'.

Labour will not be satisfied until democracy has totally been eradicated in this country. This only shows the extreme hypocrisy and deceit of this government. First they delay introducing FOI for years, then they water it down as much as they can, now they want to gradually reduce it. This is the same government that wants to limit the House of Lords because it dared to oppose them over ID cards. These people are vain, self serving extremists. So we will end up with not a Freedom Of Information Act, but, due to having to pay to see 'free' information, a Rip Off Britain Act. (Source: Mail on Sunday, Jul/06)

A report has revealed that ministers have slashed the amount of information they allow the public to know. It showed that a string of Whitehall departments have tightened the secrecy surrounding their activities despite Tony Blair's promise that Labour would bring an era of open government. Among ministers whose civil servants are now refusing to answer more than half of all the questions put by the public under Labour's Freedom of Information Act are Home Secretary John Reid, Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett, and Trade Secretary Alistair Darling.

Of nearly 63,000 Freedom of Information requests made since the law came into force two years ago, more than 26,000 have been answered only with silence. The figures come as ministers prove reluctant to part with information while in Government that they said should be public when they were in opposition. Mr Blair declared in March 1996 that "we want to end the obsessive and unnecessary secrecy which surround Government activity and make Government information available to the public unless there are good reasons not to do so." (Source: Daily Mail, Dec/06)