UK Freedom of Information Act Comes Into Force 42
norfolkboy writes "The UK Freedom of Information Act comes into force today, 1st January 2005. Under the new law, passed by Parliament in 2000, all citizens will have information to any non-exempt information from ANY English, Scottish, or Welsh public sector authority or institution, and the information must be presented within twenty days."
Re: have information to any non-exempt information (Score:1, Offtopic)
You must be new here.
No wait, I see you have a 5 digit UID. In that case, you must live in a hole with a blindfold on.
Re: have information to any non-exempt information (Score:1, Funny)
Spinning disk anyone? (Score:5, Insightful)
You might be able to use disposable media for an individual case, or a single agency, but the scalability issues that this implies mean that you will need a convenient, inexpensive medium that is also online.
Re:Spinning disk anyone? (Score:1, Insightful)
Also, they've got enough time built in to the law(minimum 20 days) that they can just charge a fee and run any papers through a copier.
Re:Spinning disk anyone? (Score:3, Interesting)
The clock starts upon receipt of the request, and must make its way through myriad, draconian bureaucracies before the actual request to pull the info, from a shelf, or off site is issued.
The actual window to pull this data is much smaller that 20 business days might suppose. The only thing this lacks are serious con
Re:Spinning disk anyone? (Score:2)
Well it would be except the UK government just coincidently ordered that government agencies purge all old email -- nothing to do with this law, you see, just a desire to keep everything tidy!
Whilst "deleted emails will be stored on back-up systems [theage.com.au], these have been declared off limits to freedom of information requests because of the cost of accessing them".
Tony Blair and David Blunkett: Labour's way of emulating Dubya Bush and John Ashcroft.
Monty Python's Flying Saturday Night Boredom (Score:5, Funny)
Me: I plan to take advantage of this new "Freedom of Information Act" straight away! Hello! Under the Freedom of Information Act, effective today, I would like to see all you can give me on Foo.
Government Representative: 'ello there. I believe information on Foo is exempt. Let me see.. yes. Yes it is. Sorry.
Me: All right then. How about Bar?
GR: Hmm, that's in volume 2. Let me see. Nope, exempt, can't let you see it.
Me: Just a peek?
GR: No.
Me: Any blank pages I could squint at?
GR: No, sorry, I can't even tell you if any pages are blank. It's exempt information, you see.
Me: Okay how about Baz? You must have *reams* of data on Baz.
GR: 'fraid not sir, it was made exempt just this morning. Rather a funny story actually, Smith here had finished making three copies of it and then Jones here said it had been made exempt. But then I bent over the shredder, and you'll notice I'm not wearing my tie today, because just at that momen--
Me: ALL RIGHT, I'm in a bit of a hurry. Can you at least tell me what subjects people have asked about today under Freedom of Information Act? We've got Foo, Bar, Baz.. anybody asked about Qux?
GR: I'm sorry sir, I don't know what you're talking about. Foo?
Me: But we were *just talking* about Foo, don't you remember all that?
GR: That information is exempt sir. Says so on page.. wait a minute I can't tell you about the memo we got. Exempt, you know.
Me: What *can* you give me?
GR: Oh! Well I've got a lovely pamphlet on the Freedom of Information Act! You can have as many of those as you want. Chock full of information! Completely non-exempt. Quite a good read, I'd say. Tells you all you need to know. Here you go.
Me: What?? This is a pamphlet on dealing with terrorist attacks, except someone has replaced the words "terrorist attacks" with "freedom of information act" using a crayon. It doesn't even make sense: "In case of freedom of information act, you should keep a supply of tinned food on hand".
GR: Oh yes. Got mine right here under the desk!
Me: It's time for the big foot to come down now and end this skit, isn't it? Gone on too long without a proper ending hasn't it?
GR: Yes sir, indeed... blimey, the wife! Fancy some spam before we go?
Re:Monty Python's Flying Saturday Night Boredom (Score:4, Funny)
I wish to write and complain about the previous post, it was most derivative and possibly even accurate.
Please ensure that all culpable ACs are banned.
Your's Sincerely
Captain Ronald McTrevor, Necromancer (deceased)
Re:Monty Python's Flying Saturday Night Boredom (Score:1, Redundant)
Re:Monty Python's Flying Saturday Night Boredom (Score:2)
Re:Monty Python's Flying Saturday Night Boredom (Score:1)
Still copyrighted, though? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Still copyrighted, though? (Score:2)
Re:Still copyrighted, though? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Still copyrighted, though? (Score:2)
All you need to do is put your question in writing (c/o Mr T. Blair, 10 Downing St. London) and they are legally obliged to tell you the answer within 20 working days.
Isn't politics fun?
Re:Still copyrighted, though? (Score:1)
Re:Still copyrighted, though? (Score:1)
My first request (Score:4, Funny)
Re:My first request (Score:1)
http://www.savagepictures.co.uk/celebrities_2004/
When you get the answer, please let us know!
UK.gov shredding frenzy (Score:5, Informative)
Of course it's just a coincidence - they just thought they would clean up all the old records by destroying lots of them. Nothing to see here, move along.
Is this part of the point of the FIA. (Score:2)
That civil servants/govenrment departments are not carrying around old/obselete/dated/inappropriate/inaccrurate data.
The fact that this act has forced a house cleaning is a good thing, you've fallen for politically motived spin. DDont forget previous governments had this data, but you had no right to ensure it was accurate or relevent.
Re:UK.gov shredding frenzy (Score:2)
Of course this might just mean that the UK Govt are very good indeed at shredding stuff...
Re:UK.gov shredding frenzy (Score:1)
Big deal. (Score:2, Interesting)
Key word: non-exempt
In other words, your citizens will have access to any information you decide to allow them access to. Very often, this results in releases of documents that are 90% blotted out, except for useless information like a few instances of "the", "and", etc.
Not to mention, you have to know about a thing before you can even request information on said thing. This has not done wonders in the US.
Offentlighetsprincipen (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Offentlighetsprincipen (Score:2)
BBC iCan page has plenty of information (Score:4, Informative)
Freedom of Information vs Strength of Bureaucracy (Score:2)
Re:Freedom of Information vs Strength of Bureaucra (Score:1)
If a UK public body holds the record *somewhere* in it, the body is obliged to find that record within the time limit.
And the request can be made to ANY officer of the body.
money making opportunity (Score:1)
kick bureaucrat ass (Score:1)
Information Request Generator (Score:1)
Just 4 steps and you can send your request by fax, email or good old fashioned letter to any of 40ish contacts, ranging from the Treasury to the Office of Fair Trading, from the Met Office to the Home Office.
Let's see what's exempt: (Score:2)
* Information about civil or criminal investigations, including police investigations
Sorry, we can't tell you if the person counting the votes is under an investigation for bribery.
* Information that would endanger the safety or the physical or mental health of another
Even if he was, we can't give you any information about him - he might get hurt in prison!
* Trade secrets and information that might affect the commercial i
Re:Let's see what's exempt: (Score:2)
This is particularly insidious. Surely tax payers should be able to find out how their money is spent?
>* Information about the formulation of government policy...
So we won't find out whether the Attorney General said "The Iraq War is legal" or not, at least not for another thirty years.
>* Qualified exemption: The public interest in withholding the information is greater than the pub