Relight My FOIA

The 20-year anniversary of the coming into force of the freedom of information act is a momentous occasion.

For all the very real issues with the legislation, the delays, the obfuscation and the issues with enforcement, FOIA has been a true leveller in the public right to information.

No longer do people need to have connections as an insider, expert, or journalist, to obtain important information about how government affects their lives.

It has also set a basic standard for government transparency, which has made it harder for government to obfuscate indefinitely.

The government can delay, but if information is important enough. eventually the ICO or a tribunal judge likely to order its release, with the fight often making the eventual release more newsworthy.

That said, the latest National Archive release of Cabinet Office papers shows even back in 2004, government was concerned about these issues.

In one Cabinet Committee meeting briefing in late 2004, Blair was advised that some cabinet members were anxious about the new legislation and wanted a “political strategy to ensure the government got credit for having enacted it” rather than being “on the defensive each time it declined to release something”.

Those that came to “regret the act” include Blair himself, who later described the act as being like saying to someone who is hitting you over the head with a stick, ‘Hey, try this instead’, and handing them a mallet.”

Another official raised a concern as to how FOIA would interfere with the control of information within the government, asking for consideration to ensure information does not “simply filter out of the machine”, and to give thought to “the vast array of emails” now subject to the act.

One solution proposed? Post-it notes!

Photo credit:  Center for American Progress