ICO calls time on unnecessary secrecy (UK)

ICO calls time on unnecessary secrecy
Date: 4 Jun 2008 - 10:34
Source: ICO

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Speaking at the 2008 FOI Live conference, Richard Thomas, the
Information Commissioner, will call on public authorities to disclose
more information proactively and eradicate unnecessary secrecy.

Richard Thomas will say: 'Since FOI was introduced in January 2005 it
has made a huge impact on public life. Freedom of Information means a
presumption of openness, where secrecy must be reserved for situations
when it really is necessary. Secrecy should not be the default
position, whether in Whitehall or elsewhere. I am pleased that more
and more government departments, local authorities, police bodies, NHS
organisations and other public authorities are seeing the benefits of
greater transparency and disclosing official material as a matter of
routine. I encourage all public authorities to see that transparency
as the norm should result in improved administration and fewer
requests.'

The Information Commissioner has written to all public authority chief
executives to urge them to release more official information. All
public bodies have an obligation under the Freedom of Information Act
to adopt a publication scheme which commits them to routinely
publishing certain sorts of information. Present schemes expire on
31st December 2008. A new model publication scheme which must be
adopted by all public authorities has been developed and approved by
the Information Commissioner. The new schemes should be adopted on 1
January 2009.

The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) also publishes new figures
today outlining progress in handling complaints under the Freedom of
Information Act in the three years since the Act came into force.
Since 2005 the ICO has received around 8,300 complaints about public
authorities that have refused to release information and has closed
just over 82% of these cases.

The ICO has informally resolved almost half of FOI complaints and - in
line with expectations - almost a thousand formal decision notices
have been issued. Over a third of complaints are ineligible, for
example because the complaint has not gone through a public
authority's internal review or the complainant has made a complaint
before receiving a response from the public authority.

After a cut in funding in 2007/08, the ICO's FOI funding has increased
to £5.5 million - the same level that was set in 2006/07. This
funding will enable the ICO to continue to close more FOI cases than
it receives each month and move forward with enforcement action
against public authorities that systematically fail to comply with the
Act. However, the funding is not sufficient to enable the ICO to make
significant inroads to the overall caseload, which currently stands at
1363, especially as the number of new cases continues to rise.

Figures released in the ICO's corporate plan show that the ICO is
upholding as many public authorities' decisions to withhold
information from the public as it is backing complainants' demands for
disclosure. The corporate plan also explains the steps the ICO will
take over the next three years to further improve responses to FOI
complaints.

Graham Smith, Deputy Information Commissioner, said: "In the so-called
Century of Information the role of the ICO has never been so
important. After three years freedom of information has become part
of the fabric of public life. We are working with limited resources
and therefore some cases still take longer than we would like to
resolve. We will continue to work hard to speed up our response to
freedom of information cases and this year we aim to close 50% of
complaints within 30 days. Over the next few months we intend to
recruit secondee caseworkers which will enable us to reduce our
overall caseload and shorten the length of time it takes to close a
case."

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Source URL: http://www.egovmonitor.com/node/19202