A UK bill giving people a right to access to information that is
held by public authorities received Royal Assent yesterday,
amending the Data Protection Act 1998. These public authorities
include parliament, government departments, local authorities and
health trusts. The legislation will be phased in over the next 5
years.
The Freedom of Information Act 2000 will introduce:
- A general right of access to information held by public authorities in the course of carrying our their public functions, subject to certain conditions and exemptions;
- A duty to disclose exempted information - in most cases - where it is in the public interest to do so;
- A new office of Information Commissioner which will combine responsibility for data protection and freedom of information;
- A new Information Tribunal with wide powers to enforce the rights created; and
- Publication schemes - each public authority will have to adopt a scheme for the publication of information. These must be approved by the Commissioner, will specify the classes of information the authority intends to publish, the manner of publication and whether the information is available to the public free of charge.
Home Secretary, Jack Straw said:
"This Act represents a further step forward in the Government's major programme of constitutional reform and the implementation of our manifesto commitment to establish a Freedom of Information Act. For the first time people will have a statutory right of access to information held by fifty thousand public authorities."
The Act also create an offence of tampering with personal data. It provides that the offence will be committed if, following a request by an individual for access to personal data held on him or her, any person "alters, defaces, blocks, erases, destroys or conceals" any record which the requestor is entitled to. The offence does not interfere with routine updates, changes and deletions to personal data.
The text of the Act is not available on-line at the time of writing.
