http://www.voxpolis.com/2006/changes-to-freedom-of-information-rules-could-reduce-openness/ Politics, culture, surrealism... Tue, 18 Nov 2008 15:41:32 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.1 http://www.voxpolis.com/2006/changes-to-freedom-of-information-rules-could-reduce-openness/#comment-465 Vox Polis » Blog Archive » No freedom for information about freedom of information Wed, 01 Nov 2006 12:29:33 +0000 http://www.voxpolis.com/2006/changes-to-freedom-of-information-rules-could-reduce-openness/#comment-465 [...] I posted an article last week about planned changes to the FoI Act that could make it very difficult for journalists to make requests under the act.  Part of basis for the changes is a report by Frontier Economics which claimed that the FoI requests were costing the taxpayer £35 million a year.  The Campaign for Freedom of Information (CfoI) made a request to the Department of Constitutional Affairs for access to the data used to formulate the report.  This request was denied on the grounds that the information “relates to the formulation and development of government policy” which makes it exempt from disclosure under the FoI Act.  As pointed out by Maurice Frankel of CfoI “The whole debate becomes very difficult if the Government is not prepared to release the factual survey which forms the basis of the Frontier Economics report.” [...] [...] I posted an article last week about planned changes to the FoI Act that could make it very difficult for journalists to make requests under the act.  Part of basis for the changes is a report by Frontier Economics which claimed that the FoI requests were costing the taxpayer £35 million a year.  The Campaign for Freedom of Information (CfoI) made a request to the Department of Constitutional Affairs for access to the data used to formulate the report.  This request was denied on the grounds that the information “relates to the formulation and development of government policy” which makes it exempt from disclosure under the FoI Act.  As pointed out by Maurice Frankel of CfoI “The whole debate becomes very difficult if the Government is not prepared to release the factual survey which forms the basis of the Frontier Economics report.” [...]

]]>