"[Changes] would knock out a significant volume of the most
important requests on public issues so it would have a pretty
drastic effect on the legislation," said Maurice Frankel, director
of the Campaign for Freedom of Information. Frankel was speaking to
OUT-LAW Radio, the weekly technology law podcast.
"Major newspapers are going to be rationed in terms of one or
two requests a quarter to organisations like the Home Office which
has all sorts of important responsibilities, and we're going to get
much less information that is of public interest that is needed to
hold public authorities to account."
The Department of Constitutional Affairs has announced planned
changes to the rules governing FOI requests. More administrative
activity charges will apply, meaning that a greater number of
applications will break the £600 threshold after which requests can
be denied.
In addition the government will allow claims from the same
organisation to be wrapped together and refused once they breach
£600 in any three month period.
Alan Beith is the Liberal Democrat MP who chaired the Commons
Committee which reported into the success of the FOI Act this
summer. He believes that the media are being targeted.
"I'm particularly concerned that responsible media use of the
FOI Act is the target for this," he told OUT-LAW Radio. "They
occasionally cite abuse of this some of which are by individuals
rather than media organisations, some of which can be dealt with by
existing powers and none of which require this sort of draconian
measure."
The DCA said that it did not intend to stifle use of the Act.
"The government are doing what they always said and reviewing the
position after 12–18 months live running and considering changes in
light of experience," said a DCA statement.
"The changes being considered are not to avoid difficult
questions," it said. "They are aimed at giving public authorities
the ability to deal with burdensome requests or requestors who
create a disproportionate burden on a public authority because of
the volume of requests they make. It's about getting a balance
between the provision of services and the provision of
information."
Dr Chris Pounder, a data protection specialist at Pinsent
Masons, the law firm behind OUT-LAW, has made calculations that
show that there is a correlation between the number of requests
likely to be denied, the number of requests made by journalists and
the number which are supervised by ministers.
By analysing figures supplied in a Frontier Economics report
commissioned by the DCA, he found that one in seven requests could
well be denied should the changes come into force. One in 10
requests is by a journalist and one in nine is sent to be analysed
by a minister, he found, raising suspicions that there is a large
degree of crossover, meaning that journalists' requests are
overseen by ministers and are likely to be turned down under new
laws.
"We looked at some of the averages Frontier's report produces
and the results are quite surprising," said Pounder. "The
conclusion we draw is that a significant proportion of journalists'
requests seem to involve ministers."
According to Frankel, any request referred to a minister is
almost certain to be denied because of the extra costs involved
under the new plans. "Officials can say about any request they are
not keen on, we'll send this up to ministers and that will
immediately add £200, £250, £300 to the likely costs of dealing
with the requests and make it much more likely that it will be
refused without further consideration, and that will make it much
harder to get information which ministers are worried about."
"Information that ministers are worried about will, merely
because they are worried about it, become more difficult to
obtain," said Frankel.
