JISC

 

The Government today released its response to a major review of the impact of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act on public sector organisations. In its response to the Constitutional Affairs Select Committee report, the Government welcomed the assessment of the Committee that the FOI Act has been a ‘significant success’.   

The response went on to say that the Act has been ‘historic in that for the first time the public has obtained a statutory right to information held by over 100,000 public authorities across the whole public sector,’ requiring, it continued, ‘a fundamental change in culture for public authorities.’

The response makes repeated reference to the importance of effective records management as a fundamental pre-requisite for compliance with the legislation. This demonstrates the higher education sector’s preparedness for the Act through effective electronic record-keeping and preservation activities – partially a result of JISC’s significant and ongoing contribution in this area.

The Department for Consitutional Affairs also today published the results of its Independent Review of the Impact of the Freedom of Information Access which highlighted the success of higher education institutions in their responses to FOI requests for information. Requests to HEIs in the first year of the Act amounted to around 2,000 at a total cost to the sector of just over £240k, the report revealed.

It also showed that requests from journalists for information constituted nearly a quarter of all requests (22%), a significantly higher percentage than that experienced by local government and strategic health authorities and only 1% less than that received by the police.  Such figures reflect concerns raised by some Vice Chancellors since the introduction of the Act regarding the enthusiasm with which some areas of the press have embraced the new powers the Act has bestowed upon them.  

These figures were taken from a joint survey undertaken by JISC, Universities UK and SCOP (Standing Conference of Principals, now GuildHE) which earlier this year showed that the higher education sector had responded both positively and successfully to the implementation of the Act.

Steve Bailey, JISC Records Manager, who authored the JISC/UUK/SCOP survey, said: ‘ Universities will undoubtedly welcome the proposed changes to the fees regime outlined in the independent review commissioned by the DCA and also published today. These include a proposal supported by the Government to include “reading time, consideration time and consultation time in the calculation of the appropriate limit above which requests can be refused on cost grounds”.

‘Such a move may help alleviate some of the costs incurred in answering requests for information - estimated to have cost the sector as a whole over £240,000 during 2005  - by striking a fairer balance between preserving the rights to free access to information wherever proportionate and possible, whilst acknowledging the true resource burden responding to such requests can place on an organisation. JISC is extremely well positioned to represent the interests of the HE sector with regards to the development of legislation in this area. ’

JISC is currently planning a repeat of the survey for 2006 to take place in January 2007 which will further add to the corpus of knowledge being gathered and used by a range of stakeholders in the education sector and beyond.

For further information, please go to: Government’s response

Original Select Committee’s report

Independent report commissioned by the DCA

 

JISC/UUK/SCOP survey