UK: FoI clearing house branded "secretive"
01 May 2006
A Constitutional Affairs Committee report into the working of the Freedom of Information (FoI) Act, which came into force on 1 January 2005 to give people the right to access to information held by public bodies in the UK, has revealed an internal department that refuses to reveal information about its functions. The Department for Constitutional Affairs (DCA) set up a "clearing house" in 2004 to function as an "expert advice centre to which cases can be referred by central government departments for further assistance when assessing the duty to release or withhold information." However, when Professor Alisdair Roberts made a FoI request asking for information about the number of cases referred to the body, it was refused on the grounds that the disclosure of any such information "could prejudice the effective conduct of public affairs". A similar experience was had by Maurice Frankel, director of the Campaign for Freedom of Information, who told the Committee: "I started getting my requests refused and discovered that the clearing house had advised departments to refuse to release their internal reviews to me, on the grounds that the information was not held in the form requested. So they were not even using a particular exemption."
The department's refusals are described by the report as "an unacceptable position for the government department in charge of promoting FoI compliance" (p. 31). The Committee's report went on went on to make the following recommendation (no. 91) to the clearing house:
The clearing house must comply fully with the letter and the spirit of the FOI Act, be openly accountable for its work and respond to any individual requests for information which it receives in full accordance with the Act. (p31)
Thus the department responsible for giving "expert advice" to other central government departments on the duty to release or withhold information has been found to be unaccountable and not acting in accordance with the FoI Act. The Committee is recommending "that the clearing house publish quarterly statistics about its case handling so as to provide clear information about its role", (Recommendation 92).
Campaign for Freedom of Information website: http://www.cfoi.org.uk/
House of Commons Constitutional Affairs Committee "Freedom of Information - one year on. Seventh Report of Session 2005-06" (HC 991) 13.6.06, available at:
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200506/cmselect/cmconst/991/991.pdf