Law - Freedom of Information Act (2000)

Freedom of information act was passed in 2000. Data protection is an important aspect of the law - it keeps all your personal information and protects it, keeps it away form the public domain. For example just like medical records, it's all confidential but you can see your own information, of course.

Image courtesy of Wikicommons:
Jonathan Joeseph Bondhus

Other protected data comes under the official secrets act: these are all about military and government plans, along with locations of bases; bases are not allowed to be broadcast on a map for example Ministry of Defence sites - just protection for things that protect our country. Confidentiality comes into this too, as mentioned with medical documents and data, in the news a few weeks ago it's been revealed that The NHS want people's details and to use them to try and find cures to diseases. Obvious problems with this - people really don't want their medical records on show.

Any person can request and receive information from a public body and this applies to files, videos, tape and electronic information, not just paper with details. It encompasses all things. The Government cannot make you do thing - governments need to be legitimate (very much the contract theory) and they gain this legitimacy through democracy, eg, voting and being accountable. We all have a right to information, our taxes mean we've paid for it really, and the people who are 'in charge of it' ie the government, are simply custodians. The basic principle of it is 'ask and you shall receive', we are entitled to this information.

Why can they say no?

If it costs more than £600 or if they information is exempt, but even then you don't need to accept their ruling. But there are two exemptions:

1. Absolute - Security services, anything to do with courts

2. Qualified - Where the information is qualified, falls under commercial confidentiality - it's pretty much a maybe area. The exemption to this is if it's in public interest, if you believe it to be then it has to pass the test.

It has to be in the public's interest, not just interesting to the public

Eg: 

• How many nurses have criminal convictions? (Public interest)
• How many NHS nurses are divorced? (Merely interesting to desperate single / divorced people

Under a qualified exemption information can be withheld where 'the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information'.

Update to the act:

Government is considering adding more limits to the FOI act. They are essentially wanting to limit groups or individuals making requests where they become too 'burdensome'. They will lower limits on costs which should lead to many more requests being rejected, just to screw over more journalists or very nosy citizens.