Chapters: 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05
2.1 Courts and tribunals are not 'public authorities' for the purposes of the FOI Act and are therefore not themselves subject to it. But the Court Service, Northern Ireland Court Service and other public authorities within central government which provide administrative support to courts and tribunals are subject to the FOI Act. Such public authorities may hold information 'on behalf of' courts and tribunals as quite separate entities - in which case they are not regarded as holding the information themselves at all for the purposes of the FOI Act (and the question of the application of this or any other exemption would not need to arise). Where they do hold the information in their own right, they may deal with the files of courts, tribunals and inquiries solely as a matter of administrative convenience. In cases of doubt as to whether a public authority holds information itself, or 'on behalf of another', legal advice should be sought.
2.2 There are separate and specific regimes for access to information held by courts and tribunals, designed to give those bodies themselves a measure of control over that information. For example, Rule 5.4 of the Civil Procedure Rules deals with access to court documents in civil proceedings in the county courts, the High Court and the Court of Appeal. It allows any person, on payment of the prescribed fee, to inspect and take a copy of (a) a claim form which has been served, (b) a judgment or order given or made in public, and (c) any other document if the court gives permission. Where a person has the right to inspect a document without permission, a request can be made to the court staff. Where permission is required, an application must be made to a judge. The Civil Procedure Rules do not include any guidance on the court's exercise of its discretion but the court will take account of all the circumstances of the case and the competing principles of open justice and the right to privacy of persons who may be mentioned in court documents.
2.3 Rules of court already provide a comprehensive code governing the disclosure of court records and documents served in the course of proceedings. For certain types of proceedings only limited classes of persons may have access to court documents due to the sensitivity of the issues involved (for example, in family proceedings there is a need to protect the identity of any children involved). It was not the intention that the FOI Act should provide indirect access to these court records; the greater public interest was considered to lie in the preservation of the courts' own procedures for considering disclosure. This exemption therefore ensures that the courts can continue to control the disclosure of that information in the proper exercise of their jurisdiction.