Part II - “Things…. can only get blurrier…”

The finale of a 25-year retrospective on Tony Blair’s ‘Freedom of Information Act 2000’

By Checkpoint Charlie

What follows is based on experience

Firstly, some basics in summary form, as the details are much more complicated than this. Here is very roughly how the FOI process works.

• All requests must be in writing
• The organisation has 20 working days to respond
• The subject matter must not be on the (very lengthy) exempt list
• It must not cost more than £600 to find the information and supply the answer
• The information must be available in the first place
• It must not already be available elsewhere
• To answer must be more in the public interest than not

How well does this serve us?

If I want some statistical information, my first thought is to phone the Department or Agency and ask them if it’s buried somewhere on their website and ask if they can direct me to the link. If it’s not on their site, then I want them to call me back when they’ve enquired internally. A call has the benefit of finding out what might be readily available on a particular subject, so that I know what it’s fast and practical to find out.

What I don’t want is to be told to put the request in writing and for the questions to be precise. This has the effect of making it easy for the Department to say: “We don’t collect that information.” What they will never volunteer is: “We don’t have exactly what you asked but we have this and it’s close, is that good enough?” Quite often the answer might well have been yes but they simply will not engage on this basis.

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Don't leave this to someone else. You are that 'someone else'.

Logic and pragmatism don’t work

When I press the point that I have no desire to create work and would be happy to consider what they do have readily available, I’m told the best thing to do is submit an ROI request. In other words, far from becoming a ‘freedom’, the FOI has become a denial of freedom and a ‘get out of jail’ card for the authorities. As far as they are concerned they have dealt with my enquiry and done their job.

Say I’m working on a deadline of 5.00pm that day and it’s 9.30am when I’m making this call. If I submit an FOI request they essentially have a month to respond, or 20 working days if I adopt their insistence on being precise. When I then explain we’ll have to go to press or on air without them, they will then produce some generic statement saying how seriously the Department takes such and such an issue, etc., etc.. Needless to say this never comes close to addressing the issue at hand.

What’s sauce for the Goose…

When working for TV, OfCom regulations require the channel to offer a Right of Reply (RoR) to the other party. The best response I ever had was last year from one of the four major Departments of State when I put to them some figures we were going to be showing in the report. The numbers I had produced were at the heart of the piece and constituted the main point the public wanted to know. The statement which I was offered from this major Department of State was somewhat lofty.

25 years of ‘Freedom of Information’

Formalising what should be a natural process of asking questions and getting answers has its pros and cons. Overall my opinion of the effect of the FOI Act in respect of journalism is negative. Misinformation and even disinformation is commonplace. For individuals wishing to know what information is held about them personally, however, I can see major benefits.

We should also consider agents other than the Act which are now acting against freedom of information. A stand-out amongst these is the extraordinary idea of civil servants working from home. My personal experience is that getting someone you want to speak to on the phone is the biggest challenge of them all. These days many government departments seem to have one junior person in the Press Office (if you’re lucky) but they can’t transfer you to the right person because they are ‘WFH’. They promise to pass on the message but then you hear nothing.

So is Sir Tony’s FOI Act just another dodgy dossier?

It would be wrong to say there have been no successes in the last 25 years. Some major stories have been unearthed and some have led to changes in legislation. Readers will, I’m sure, be able to think of their own examples of good journalism uncovering important stories. For no particular reason the Daily Telegraph’s exposé of the MPs’ expenses scandal comes to mind and this was partly made possible by the Act.

The extent to which the FOI Act made a full difference is another matter, though. Take a wild guess at one set of individuals who – though information about them held by others can be requested – are themselves exempt from responding to requests under the FOI Act? Yes, that would be those who actually voted for it in the House of Commons: our MPs.

There you go, and you didn’t even have to submit an FOI request to discover that piece of information.

- By Checkpoint Charlie, Dec 2025