Ministers approve FOI answers
To what extent are government ministers personally engaged in overseeing responses to freedom of information requests?
Some light has now been shed on this question thanks to a Home Office internal report inadvertently sent to the BBC. And the evidence it contains suggests that many Home Office FOI replies may involve ministerial approval, except for those where the requester is simply told that the Home Office doesn't actually possess the information wanted.
This Home Office document was sent in error by an official to a BBC East Midlands journalist, Alistair Jackson. (I have redacted the names of some private individuals).
It itemises a batch of FOI requests to be answered by the Home Office, dividing them into those that need to be seen by a minister before the reply is sent and those that don't. As far as this group of 15 FOI questions is concerned, the only ones excluded from direct ministerial oversight are the five where the intended response is that the information is not held. Any answer involving the actual supply of information, or the refusal to provide material held, required ministerial approval.
In each case it is also noted whether the FOI request comes from the press, and (for those going to ministers), the 'level of controversy' is assessed. The most controversial one in this list concerns executive bonuses at the Criminal Records Bureau.
A Home Office spokesman told the BBC: 'They are sent for a Minister to note them before a response is sent. This is so that Ministers are aware of information that is being released into the public domain.'
This high level of ministerial involvement has implications for the amount of civil service resources devoted to FOI, as it increases the time spent on it by senior officials and those in ministerial private offices. It also risks causing delays.
An internal Home Office email accompanying the document also reveals that the Permanent Secretary has set a 90% performance target for replying within the statutory 20-day deadline.
The Home Office spokesman said: 'The Home Office is committed to responding to FOI requests within the timescales set by the Act but the complexity of our cases means that this will not always be possible. We have therefore set an internal target of 90 per cent which is achievable and challenging. Our performance has considerably improved (from 45% in 2005 to nearly 90% this year) since the Act came into force and we intend to make further progress.'
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Another sign that our Civil Service is currently far too politicised.
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This just reinforces the issues within the Home Office that resulted in a police investigation. Instead of mking, as the govt should have done, information public that we havea right to know. An opposition MP faces a criminal investigation for doing his job.
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Seemingly the police have not visited the BBC nor arrested anyone there. So in future, all MP's who receive any "leaked" information need to say in their defence is that the it must have been " inadvertent".
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Conservatives claimed for years that the FoI was an intrusion into government secrets and only wanted by "left-wing busybodies". They bitterly opposed the FoI being made law.
Now that Conservatives have become left-wing busybodies too, they use the FoI quite a lot. Which pauline conversions are welcome. But I wonder if it is their policy to repeal the FoI if they ever gain office?
The law presumes that whatever is published under the FoI will become public knowledge. Consequently personal information is usually kept secret.
Of course Ministers should be able to prepare to answer whatever supplementary questions may arise from FoI information. To do that they are as entitled as anyone else to know of the information requested. I presume that also applies to information supplied by Local Government, NHS Trusts, Schools and all other public bodies.
The FoI is a good tool, and more honest and open than clandestine "leaks". Why were Conservatives so against it?
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So, just following arresting an Opposition MP for leaking information of a kind that has been meat and drink to MPs for years - even the Labour MP for Thurrock said so in the debate the other day - we mysteriously have information sent "inadvertantly" to the BBC to show how overworked they all are in replying to FOI requests.
Yeah. Right.
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"inadvertantly"?
No one "groomed" one hopes.
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I can't say what the current position is (having been sacked for trying to protect FOI by leaking to the BBC 18 months ago - or at least that's how my central government department employers (obviously not Home Office!) chose to see my actions), but the Home Office were always seen as a bit of a joke for needing Ministerial agreement to every FOI response and (in the early days), wanting MoJ (DCA as was) to approve every single response, no matter how mundane. Don't tar all Civil Servants or departments with the Home Office brush!
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