The retention of records
FOI only helps you get access to information which a public authority actually has. If the information has been mislaid, destroyed, burnt, lost in the post or inadvertently placed in a skip and taken for landfill - or if, for example, the House of Commons has shredded old expense claims from MPs - FOI can't recreate the information and give it to you.
If you have views on the retention policies for government records, or other aspects of records management, now is the time to express them. The National Archives has today launched a consultation exercise on a revised version of the code of practice on records management.
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It's a shame that our public servants (such as MP's) are so afraid of the FOI. Only those who have something to hide would fear the FOI. The government have for a long time had the freedom to access all of our information - and yet when the table is turned you can hear the crying and blubbering before it's even started. I have to live with the fact that there is information out there on - where I live, who my friends are, who my family are, where they live, how much I earn, which tubes I catch and even what I look at on the internet (if you're a BT cutomer) - why should MP's be above the law?
Judges can be excluded because they do have a serious concern of 'reprisal', or worse pre-trial intimidation. I think MP's have bigger ego's than we thought if they actually believe we care about them that much to go and visit them. Fathers for justice just wanted the publicity, and I think this is what the MP's really fear - exposure of their behaviour and exposing their incompetence.
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I am of mixed feelings. I'm a pack rat, and I collect lots of things, so I would naturally support increased information storage.
I also filed a USA FOI request regarding my dead Great-Grandfather's FBI file. The FBI destroyed said file an unknown time ago.
That said, I don't want the government to hold a lot of old files for no good reason, particularly in sensitive areas. After all, my Great-Grandfather was investigated by the FBI merely because he was under suspicion. If they had kept it, I'm not sure what they would do with it...
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While it wasn't a FOI request, I did request some info from HSE regarding one of the most unusual incidents at a UK Nuclear Reactor, but the HSE didn't keep files for 30 years, so I didn't get that much info. (In case you're curious, it involved the filming of the Doctor Who episode "The Pirate Planet".)
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Could you check into the Met Office refusal to release correspondence between Dr. Mitchell and the IPCC?
Despite IPCC requirements that all emails etc are kept for at least 5 years, the Met Office claim that emails have been destroyed as Dr. Mitchell was acting in a personal capacity, when he acted as an IPCC Review Editor, and not as an employee of the Met Office, even though the Met Office proudly claim to be participants in the IPCC process.
This refusal looks like they have something to hide, although I am sure they haven't
Further details can be found at http://www.climateaudit.org/?p=3208
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