Who makes FOI requests?
One of Tony Blair's regrets about introducing the Freedom of Information Act was that it has mostly been used by journalists rather than by "the people", or so he claims.
Now possibly this is true of those FOI requests to Downing Street which his staff told him about, but whether it applies to the less intrusive requests that never came to his attention is another matter altogether.
In any case at the time he wrote his memoirs he would have been unaware of the more recent activities of his former parliamentary colleague, Tom Watson, the Labour MP for West Bromwich East.
As an ardent Brownite organiser, Mr Watson was far from being Mr Blair's favourite person, but he's also become an enthusiastic opposition campaigner. He says he's submitted over 3,000 FOI applications since the general election.
Mr Watson writes:
"I love the freedom of information act. I accept that it's not a comforting piece of legislation if you happen to be prime minister. But for a backbench MP who believes in greater transparency in government, it's a great tool."
It all raises the question of what kind of person is actually making freedom of information requests. The data available to answer this question is limited. But I decided to look at one small source which is publicly available.
The Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital provides information on its website not only about all its FOI disclosures but also some details of each requester, and has done so since FOI applications were first made in 2005. As far as I know no other public authority has done this (if you know otherwise, I would be very grateful to hear from you).
We've analysed the 900-plus FOI requests which the hospital trust received in 2005 - 2010.
One caveat is necessary: some requesters reported as individuals may actually have been making their request on behalf of an organisation without indicating that. And we should not forget this is only one public authority, which may not be representative of any others.
But the following patterns emerge from this data, such as it is:
The total number of requests was broadly stable for three years, suddenly doubled from 2007 to 2008, and has since remained stable again.
Most requests have come from individuals, with an increase over the past five years and a particular jump in the past year.
Media requests come second, with a pattern of fluctuation over the period.
Political requests come next, peaking in 2008/2009 and dropping rapidly since. Of the 126 requests from politicians or parties, 72 were from Conservatives, 53 from Lib Dems and just one from Labour. This suggests a process of trying to collect useful ammunition in the run up to the general election.
Requesting by businesses has steadily grown over the past six years, as the commercial sector perhaps becomes more aware of the opportunities presented by FOI. This is now the fourth major category of freedom of information applicant.
But actually for me the most surprising revelation was the several instances of hospitals using FOI to get information from other hospitals.
To take one recent example, the Royal Liverpool Hospital has been collecting information on the handling of emergencies which happen outside buildings but elsewhere on hospital premises, eg in car parks.
So who uses FOI? Journalists who in Tony Blair's words may be looking for more effective "mallets" to brandish at those in power (we prefer to call it scrutiny); opposition politicians who can also see a good use for such mallets; businesses who can see commercial value in information; and actually plenty of individuals who hope to find out stuff they want to know and may have a variety of motives. And occasionally there are also parts of the state who exploit it to find out more about other elements of the public sector
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You may be interested that the FOI unit in Northern Ireland's OFMdFM classified who was making FOI requests. I complained to the Commissioner on DPA grounds over this and they had a finding against them issued. Would be happy to share the details if interested.
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@MJShilliday - I'm interested in the details.
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FWIW, as an individual, my requests fall into three camps - items researching historical data relating to BT Prestel for a hobby project I run ( http://www.viewdata.org.uk ), stuff that relates directly to matters affecting me, which tend to be direct to my LA, and occasionally, pure curiosity about things I've seen mentioned in the news, say, and want to know more about but cannot find the original data on the organisations' websites. (I tend to follow up "what I read in the papers" with going to see what it was that was really said!!)
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Cannot you make a FOI request about FOI requests (sorry to sound recursive)
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Don't forget that not everything has to be done via FoI - I work in the civil service and am aware of a case where we called the person asking for the info to withdraw their FoI request so that we could provide them with the data faster. There was no reason not to provide the data, rather if it goes out as an FoI response there is an internal process to follow - if it goes out as a response to a simple request, there isn't.
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David C99 is right. I always indicate that I am willing to discuss what can be provided. And if that is ignored I follow it up. Sometimes FOI's follow complete failure to acknowledge a legitimate question to an official. When the FOI is refused of incorrectly dealt with I appeal and then further.
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As an accountant working for a local authority in England, I have had to assist in responses to many FOI requests over the years, and from my experience the majority of them have come from journalists. Politicians [local MP's]have tended to write letters instead and they get treated as a priority, as do councillor queries.
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I work in a central government department. Perhaps this isn't representative (though no less representative than this sample), but the majority of requests from 'individuals' actually come from journalists. A simple google search on their name reveals this. A lesser but still significant number come from a few campaigning individuals who submit frequent requests.
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I've often thought that the greater the requests to FOI, the weaker the transparency of the Government. The weaker the transparency of the Government, the more fertile ground for the growth of such a platforms as Wikileaks.
The weaker the transparency of the Government, the less the Government evidently wants people to know. The less the Government wants people to know, the more these people will encounter resistance to a FOI.
Proof of point: How many FOI requests are declined and for what reason(s)? How many FOI requests came back with most of the relevant information blacked-out?
So individuals and media make about the same number of request. So what? To me that's not the issue. The issue is why the requests are generated at all. In a transparent, democratic society why can't the media, for example, call the horse's mouth and get a clear statement of the truth?
In a transparent, democratic society why can't an individual, for example, call the appopriate manager ot supervisor and get a clear statement of the truth?
Why does there have to be so much cover-up? If the Government is not proud of what it is doing, maybe it should stop doing it.
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In my experience working in the press office and as an FOI monitor in local government, by far and away the largest group of FOI requesters is the media.
Usually, the journalists in question are those that want to bash the public sector by taking a few examples of public sector waste/extravagance/incompetence from their FOI request and extrapolating it across the whole of the sector under a senasationalised headline.
Being a press officer as well means that I analyse media coverage. I have noticed that only about half of all media FOI requests result in an article. Therefore half are basically a waste of time and effort. Such FOI requests takes thousands of hours of work by hundreds of employees across various organisations in the public sector.
Apparently the irony of this waste of millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money is lost on these journalists. Oh well, at least it helps to sell advertising space……
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Bluebaldee at #10: another way of looking at it, is that half of those requesting information using FOI are satisfied with the information they receive, and that therefore conclude there is no story.
Personally I'd rather simply ask and be given information than go through the FOI process (so agree with DavidC99 & cping500).
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Ben Worthy from the Constitution Unit at University College, London has drawn my attention to three councils which give details of types of requesters on their FOI disclosures log (for which many thanks to him). They are Suffolk, Teignbridge and Newham. Ben says the Unit is analysing material from these logs as part of their current research project into the impact of FOI on local government.
However in these three cases the data does not go back all the way to 2005, so the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital information may still be a unique public dataset for comparisons throughout the entire period of freedom of information.
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Am I 'the people'? Well I am not a politician or a journalist and have submitted dozens of FoI requests purely for my own research and interest. People may think me a nosy person or a pain, but I'm certainly not pursuing the agenda of an organisation or group - I'm using FoI as an individual.
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Martin - FoI requesters don't have to give any details of themselves, or even their real name - you can send an email request and sign it 'Donald Duck' - so how are these bodies assessing who is an individual and who isn't? By the way in which they've signed their emails?
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I don’t know for sure how they assess who is an “individual” and who isn’t, but I suppose it’s based on the e-mail address of the requester or any other obvious evidence.
Sometimes authorities research requesters in order to classify them. However last year the Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister in Northern Ireland was rebuked for doing this by the Information Commissioner, on the grounds that it breached the Data Protection Act.
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I tend to agree with Bluebaldee at #10. However, this works both ways. Its worth making requests of media organisations under FOI. May make they a bit more circumspect on what they write and the opinions they express.
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