freedom of Information Act

Good posts Pen Pusher & Jeepman,
For me the FoI is simply another (unrequired) layer over the standard museum licencing rules of public access and accountability. If it’s a public funded museum, it already is doing all that the FoI demands. If it’s not an accredited museum it may help, but not much, I suspect. As beaurocracy is already the main brake on responses to queries, another level of accounting hardly helps, IMHO. The FoI may be important in other aspects of HM Govts over-secretive attitudes, but not in the museums & archives area.

It’s worth adding that despite some posts here, all UK museums are hardly highly secretive and sensitive organisations. Most archives have more of a problem getting people to use the info available!

For instance, for all the attacks on the RAF Museum’s attitude and policies here (some I’ve added to myself) few posters have bothered to contact the museum direct. Perhaps those that have could record if they got a response? I know there were a couple of RAFM replies posted here.

Cheers!

Thanks guys – but I write as somebody who in the day job co-ordinates the Publication Scheme for a quasi governmental organisation and deals with extremely difficult FoI queries (with diverging legal opinions) on a day to day basis.

Given the general harping here about some of the decisions taken by some of the state-funded museums, I was simply intrigued to see whether people had considered the use of the FoI Act as an opportunity to seek information to answer some of the questions being asked. But perhaps as JDK says it’s more fun to moan than to do anything about finding out the background to the decision.

The question about whether anybody had anything to raise was really by way of an experiment to see what would, if at all, be available.

Freedon of Information Act 2000

‘The Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOI) came into force on the 1st January 2005 and is there to provide members of the public with a statutory right of access to information held by public bodies. All requests for information, including e-mails, must be in a permanent form and contain the name and address for return correspondence as well as describing the information required. All enquiries must be treated as a request for information under the FOI even if the Act is not mentioned. In the MoD all letters must be answered within 20 working days, assuming it went to the right department in the first place, of the request being received. There are of course exemptions to the type of information that will be provided and this includes material on Special Forces, National Security, Commercial interests etc.

The Act places an obligation on public authorities to make information available on both a proactive and reactive basis. The proactive route is for each public authority to maintain a Publication Scheme. The reactive provision is the general right of access to all recorded information.

A Publication Scheme sets out the Classes of Information published by a Public Authority and states how this information is available and whether it is subject to a fee. Information made available through the Publication Scheme does not have to be provided in response to individual requests – the applicant is simply advised on where the information can be accessed.’

The above information is a distilled from the mass of paperwork dumped on our desks at the start of the year. For a fuller understanding of the Act and how to request information log onto either,

www.foi.mod.uk or www.foi.gov.uk

Happy Hunting.

Hi Jeepman,
Bit of a sledgehamer – nut aproach there.

Having worked for a state funded museum, they are obliged to provide transparency of what they did because of their status as a registered museum. The FoI had nothing to do with it, beyond meaning that governmental civil servants (i.e. not Museum staff) might be obliged to give details of (say) funding.

Basically, if you write to a museum, with a specific question, you should get an answer from the appropriate member of staff, usually within a month. If you want to see their collection policy, thaat’s usually freely avaliable. If you can visit, ringing first and making an apointment will usually get a (brief) meeting and answers to your question(s).

Going in demanding stuff because of the FoI, expecting big secrets and so on will just make you look silly. They’ll be patient and helpful, but you’ll just join the ranks of those that increase the belief of those that help the public that the public’s full of oddballs.

The bane of museum life IMHO is people deciding why a museum’s done something before asking. While I disagree with a number of museum decisions, there is usually a rational and reasonable explanation. Sadly howver, moaning to a mate is much more fun that checking your facts. So go ahead!

I’m not telling. :p