Earlier this year, the campaign group Unlock Democracy sent a legal letter to ministers – in a bid to reveal how the new research agency will spend its budget.
“When a minister describes FOI as 'truly malign' you know it is working,” said Tom Brake, the head of Unlock Democracy. “Ministers hate FOI because it reveals the truly malign actions or cover-ups of government and public bodies. The minister should be pressing for more FOI, not less – and for FOI requests to remain free.”
The idea of charging fees for FOI requests was backed by the incoming information commissioner, John Edwards. He told MPs it was “legitimate” to ask the public to meet the cost of digging out the relevant information.
But campaigners argue that fees would “harm the accountability and transparency of the wider public sector”.
Alex Parsons, a researcher at mySociety, said: “This slow undermining of FOI damages the public's right to access important information about how their government works.”
A government spokesperson told openDemocracy: “The Freedom of Information Act is an important check and balance – it helps ensure the accountability of public bodies and the proper spending of taxpayers’ money. The Act takes into account the public interest when disclosing information.
"We remain fully committed to our transparency agenda and routinely disclose information well beyond our Freedom of Information Act obligations. However, we also recognise the need to balance the public need to make information available with our duty to protect sensitive information and national security.”
Comments
We encourage anyone to comment, please consult the oD commenting guidelines if you have any questions.