Freedom of Information Act a 'significant success' says Govt
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