Government says no to FOI

The Government’s response rates to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests has deteriorated significantly since the Act was introduced five years ago, says Sweet & Maxwell, the legal information provider.

Statistics show that the Government has been refusing to answer an ever higher proportion of Freedom of Information Act requests.

Some 22 per cent of requests for information under the FOIA were refused in Q3 2009 compared to 18 per cent in 2005 when the Act first came into force.

While 6,334 requests for information were withheld in the last 12 months.

The figures also show that the percentage of requests which did not receive a proper response in the 20-day deadline rose from 16 per cent to 18 per cent over the last year.

Sweet & Maxwell says that the performance of some Government bodies differed radically from others in Q3 09. Whilst the Cabinet Office refused 51 per cent of resolvable requests, the Ministry of Defence only refused 8 per cent of requests in the same period.

According to Marcus Turle, author of Freedom of Information Manual, published by Sweet & Maxwell, Government departments still have a deeply rooted ‘need to know’ culture and are struggling to come to terms with the ‘right to know’ principle enshrined in the FOIA.

He adds: “If the Ministry of Defence, which has a reputation for secrecy and could justifiably withhold information on national security grounds, only refuses 8% of requests you have to wonder whether departments like HM Revenue & Customs are withholding information on legitimate grounds.”