BOOK REVIEW
YOUR RIGHT TO KNOW How to Use the Freedom of Information Act and Other Access Laws Heather Brooke Pluto Press (2005) pp ix + 262 If you've ever had occasion to embark on the frustrating quest for information held by government departments, this book would have proved a godsend had it existed. The FOIA, in prolonged gestation since the 1970s, is finally now in operation but, says Alan Rusbridger in in his Foreword, “it has been imposed on often unwilling senior civil servants and frequently on even less enthusiastic government ministers. The Guardian found obstruction and sometimes brazen contempt for the spirit of freedom of information." Brooke tells how for the first time the government's ‘Right to Secrecy' has been replaced in law with the public's ‘Right to Know'; lagging behind most other developed countries. Bureaucratic agencies, some 'hidden inside others like a set of Russian dolls', conspire towards unaccountable mystery and medieval secrecy. Policies are formulated in secret, using facts and figures hidden from public view; secrecy leads to bad policies, bad decisions and bad government. An agency never faced with its mistakes can never really learn anything. The test of the FOIA depends on how agencies will use the numerous exemptions; will they provide a convenient excuse to avoid revealing embarrassing material? Without facts, we are powerless to oppose government decisions or bring about change. Debates committed the government to more liberal interpretations of the exemptions; Jack Straw said it would ‘transform the default setting to “this should be published unless”'. Lord Falconer asserted that factual information used to provide an informed background to decision-taking will normally be disclosed. Any request in writing (including by email and fax) is valid, and the agency has a duty to comply promptly, and indeed to consider the most helpful way to assist you to get the information you seek, whatever your motivation or reasons for making the request. Most authorities, says Brooke, seem unaware that exemptions are discretionary and that they could release all information if they wanted to! All qualified (non-absolute) exemptions require a public interest test. They must give reasons why the public interest is best served in withholding information unless “in typical Yes, Minister style, it's against the public interest to state the reasons why withholding the information is in the public interest”! The balance must always be that disclosure is best, and to set public interest in withholding information against that, with grounds for appeal if you think the authority is withholding information for its own self-interest. In the Health chapter, Brooke says that a culture of secrecy results in bad policies and distrust of government in most cases. This book collects details of where and how to collect information, and the right format for doing so, with an Appendix of specimen request letters. It provides postal and email addresses and websites to explore. Your Right to Know is scrupulously researched and cross-checked, and the presentation by Pluto Press, including its index, makes it a pleasure to handle and consult. Latest information (see October Editorial) indicates that the Information Commissioner is seriously understaffed and that, unless that is quickly remedied, untoward delays may bring the whole Act into disrepute. P G Woolf (Editor) See also Editorial November 2005 |