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Home > People's rights > Freedom of Information > Project plan for implementation of Freedom of Information Act 2000

Freedom of Information

Project Plan for Implementation of Freedom of Information Act 2000

Executive Summary

March 2004

Introduction

  1. The Freedom of Information (FOI) Act 2000 received Royal Assent on 30 November 2000 and will be brought fully into force by 1 January 2005. The Act provides for a general right of access to information held by public authorities or by those providing services of a public nature.

  2. The FOI Act will apply to some 100,000 public authorities, including Central and Local Government, Parliament, the National Assembly for Wales, the armed forces, the police, hospitals, GPs and dentists, schools, publicly-funded museums and many others. Northern Ireland has decided to adopt and operate the Act in line with England and Wales. The Scottish Parliament has enacted separate Freedom of Information legislation introduced by the Scottish Executive, which applies to bodies within the competence of the Scottish Parliament. The Scottish Act will also be fully in force on 1 January 2005.

  3. The Act establishes a general statutory right of access to information. Once implemented, in January 2005, a person who writes to (or emails) a public authority and asks for information will have the right to be told whether or not the authority has the information and, if so, to have that information communicated to him, subject to clearly defined exemptions. Applicants do not have to specify that they are making the request under the Act. The Act is fully retrospective, i.e. it applies to all information held by an authority, not merely information created or acquired by it after 1 January 2005.

  4. The Act contains Exemptions, which specify the circumstances in which information may be withheld. Many of the exemptions will be subject to a "public interest" test. Where the public interest test applies, the authority will still be required to disclose the information, unless it can demonstrate that the public interest in withholding the information outweighs the public interest in disclosing it. Other Exemptions are "absolute", which means that the public interest test does not have to be applied.

  5. Any decision not to disclose information may be subject to an appeal to the independent Information Commissioner. Decisions of the Information Commissioner can be challenged by the applicant or the public authority to the Information Tribunal, free of charge, and then to the courts on a point of law. The Act gives Ministers at Cabinet level the ability to override the Commissioner's decision that a Department (or other public authority specified by Order) discloses exempt information in the public interest.

  6. In order to provide a clear policy and implementation lead across Whitehall, the Department for Constitutional Affairs (DCA) has established a project to link all areas of ongoing and new work closely.

Project Scope/Plan

  1. The desired outcome for the project is the successful implementation of the FOI Act. This will be achieved by managing the programme of implementing the Act in Central Government departments, and providing leadership and support to the wider public sector. In respect of both, the DCA will work in close consultation with the Information Commissioner. A clear understanding among both the parties of each other's (the DCA and the Information Commissioner Office) role will be vital in recognising the Information Commissioner's independence.

  2. Work on implementation started in November 2000. The Project was established in July 2003 and will need to run until Dec 2005. The FOI Act comes fully into force from 1 January 2005. In October/November 2002 a review of the deliverable products was carried out and it was identified that the project timelines were at risk. As a consequence, a formal project management structure has been put in place with the Head of Information Rights Division (as Project Executive), and Jiwan Raheja (as Project Manager). The Project is being run in two stages: first from July 2003 until the Act comes into force; and from then until December 2005 for evaluation and the early stages of FOI implementation. In the course of 2005 an early decision will be taken on the nature of subsequent work needed to sustain the drive to greater openness.

  3. The Project team, in the light of the announcement by the then Lord Chancellor in November 2001 of the timetable for implementation of the Act, has prepared a timetable to ensure successful implementation of FOI. The project aims to establish effective reporting systems to monitor that the tasks are completed within the specified timescale. This is to be achieved through five strands of work to be managed under the FOI Implementation Project by Information Rights Division as follows:

    • Legislation
      The aim of this strand is to produce all secondary legislation required under the FOI Act in sufficient time for all parties. Secondary legislation is required to amend the list of bodies covered by the Act and to commence for those bodies their obligations under the Act. The programme here is designed to allow for consultation with other departments, with the Information Commissioner, with the bodies to be affected and with the devolved administrations, as well as to allow for Ministerial consideration and approval together with the necessary Parliamentary processes. In parallel with this, there will be an analysis of the extent of rights of Access to information held by private sector bodies carrying out functions of a public nature. This strand also produced guidance on how authorities will meet their obligations under the Act, in the form of the Lord Chancellor's Code of Practice, as well as producing the Regulations governing Fees that may be charged under the Act.

    • Monitoring systems
      This strand will develop a specification for an IT system which would enable Departments (and possibly other public authorities) more effectively to process requests for information under the Act and assist them in improving their performance. This work will take account of the existing correspondence control systems in use in Departments; work currently in hand (both by Departments and the software industry) in developing FOI control systems; and the results of research into the systems in use in comparable jurisdictions overseas.

    • Guidance on Exemptions
      This strand will comprise the production of guidance on the way the Act is to be given practical effect, in particular in relation to the applications of Exemptions and the public interest test. The aim is that, working in partnership with the Information Commissioner, authoritative and practical guidance will be made available on all the Exemptions in advance of the Act coming into force.

    • Networks
      The aim of this strand is to establish effective networks of FOI practitioners. The main objectives are to facilitate the necessary cultural change in the central and local government to greater openness and to provide a forum for discussion and resolution of common problems and thereafter of common solutions. The networks will also consider the recognition and commitment to FOI as a career or specialism in its own right and to promote consistency of approach across Whitehall regulators. It is envisaged that the networks will be run through the quarterly forums for FOI practitioners involving the key Whitehall and public sector organisations, which will provide an opportunity to bring together regularly the FOI officers from a range of departments to share information and expertise. The networks will also encourage participation of both FOI officers and senior managers. The networks will also stress the importance of appropriate level of training and consideration will be given to running and moderating e-mail discussion groups and other electronic forum.

    • Communications strategy/Awareness
      The communications strategy will consist of a number of elements designed to allow targeting of resources against priorities to fully implement the FOI Act in 2005. Priority will be given to those areas where it is necessary to make an early and lasting impact, and where delivery is feasible within resources. This means that attention will be focused on Whitehall Departments in terms of compliance, while making other public bodies aware that full FOI implementation is imminent.

  4. The Project Initiation Document (PID) pdf document [305kb] was published in March 2004 and includes a business case, detailed analysis of four strands of work, the fifth strand on communications is being developed, (including product descriptions and plans) to be managed as sub-projects. The PID also includes details of highlight and exception reports to the Senior Executive and Project Board.

  5. To enable successful implementation of the Act the DCA will have to ensure that interactions occur between the bodies across Whitehall and public sector by working closely in partnership through the FOI networks, sub-groups set up to produce the guidance on FOI exemptions. Another channel for providing the input to key FOI issues will be through the FOI Practitioners Group, Advisory Group and Senior Group on Information Policy as necessary. Finally consideration will also be given to partnerships with other public and private sector organisations where they provide a more appropriate route for delivering the project plans.

  6. In addition, the project will involve close liaison with the Information Commissioner's Office and the National Archives on parallel or existing projects or initiatives, such as the guidance the National Archives are producing on Electronic Records Management.

Benefits of the project

  1. The main benefits of the project include:
    • the project will fulfil the Government's commitment (announced in November 2001) that the FOI Act will be fully implemented by 1 January 2005;
    • the project will provide cost effective and efficient processing of requests and management of infomation by public authorities and
    • in the long term higher policy making and increasing public confidence in the Government, and public sector as a whole.

Project Approach

  1. A Project Board will shortly be established and it will report to the Senior Group as necessary, though its reports will also be made available to the Advisory Group and the Practitioners' Group. The Project Team will consist of the Strand leaders responsible for producing the products for each area of work.

Reporting of Risk

  1. An initial risk log for the project has been developed and a fuller risk register is being developed. Risks will be monitored throughout the project and reported to the project board through the monthly highlight reports.

 

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