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,
http://www.foi.mod.uk or http://www.foi.gov.uk
Happy Hunting.
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