2. Essential FoI resources:
• https://www.whatdotheyknow.com
• Website which lets you browse answered
requests (also helps you make them)
• http://www.foi.directory
• Essential source of FoI officer addresses and
other general info
• https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-
freedom-of-information/
• Guide to FoI with handy info on exemptions and
how to appeal
3. What is it?
• Became law in 2005
• Guy Basnett and Paul McNamara:
Imagine somewhere in the vaults of
Government buildings, the offices of an NHS
hospital or the custody suite of a police
station lies the information that you’d like to
see. Well you can - this is the Freedom of
Information Act
4. What’s covered?
100,000 public authorities
• Government departments
• Government agencies (such as the DVLA, or UK Border Force)
• Councils (including parish, district, borough, county)
• Health Authorities (all NHS bodies)
• Fire Authorities
• Police
• Police and Crime Commissioner
• Museums and galleries
• Schools and academies
• Publicly owned companies
• The BBC (but not information held for purposes of arts and
journalism)
5. What’s not covered?
• The security services (GCHQ, MI5, MI6, etc)
• The Queen and her Heir to the throne
• Individual MPs or councillors
• Housing Associations
6. Exemptions (absolute)
• FOI ABSOLUTE EXEMPTIONS
• Section 21 – Information accessible by other means (this often means it is already in the public
domain, in which case the authority is obliged to direct you to where it is held).
• Section 23 – National Security – Information supplied by, or relating to, bodies dealing with security
matters (a certificate signed by a Minister of the Crown is conclusive proof that the exemption is
justified. There is a separate appeals mechanism against such certificates)
• Section 32 – Court Records
• Section 34 – Parliamentary Privilege – a certificate signed by the Speaker of the House, in respect
of the House of Commons, or by the Clerk of the Parliament, in respect of the House of Lords is
conclusive proof that the exemption is justified.
• Section 36 – Effective Conduct of Public Affairs – so far as relating to information held by the House
of Commons or the House of Lords.
• Section 40 – Personal Information – where the applicant is the subject of the information. The
applicant already has the right of ‘subject access’ under the Data Protection Act 1998; where the
information concerns a third party and disclosure would breach one of the data protection
principles.
• Section 41 – Information provided ‘In Confidence’
• Section 44 – Prohibitions on disclosure – where a disclosure is prohibited by an enactment or
would constitute contempt of court.
7. Exemptions (qualified)
Public interest test applies
• Section 22: Information Intended For Future Publication Exemption
• Section 24: National security (other than information supplied by or relating to named security
organisations, where the duty to consider disclosure in the public interest does not apply)
• Section 26: Defence
• Section 27: International relations
• Section 28: Relations within the United Kingdom
• Section 29: UK Economic Interests
• Section 30: Investigations And Proceedings Conducted By Public Authorities
• Section 31: Law Enforcement
• Section 33: Audit Functions
• Section 35: Formulation of government policy and Ministerial Communications
• Section 36: Prejudice to effective conduct of public affairs (except information held by the House of
Commons or the House of Lords)
• Section 37: Communications with Her Majesty, the Royal Family or concerning honours
• Section 38: Health And Safety
• Section 39: Environmental Information – as this can be accessed through the Environmental
Information Regulations
• Section 40: Personal information relating to a third party access request
• Section 42: Legal Professional Privilege
• Section 43: Commercial Interests
8. The cost limit
• One of the most likely reasons to turn down a
request
• Cost limit: 24 hours work for central
Government, 18 hours for other public
authorities
• But subject to public interest test so can be
over-ridden (eg. MPs’ expenses)
9. FoI exemptions
• Detailed guidance available on Ministry of
Justice and Information Commissioner’s Office
websites
• Broadly speaking - for an authority to
withhold information the public interest in
keeping it secret must outweigh the public
interest in disclosure
• FoI requests should be answered in 20
working days.
10. What’s not covered
• The security services (GCHQ, MI5, MI6, etc)
• The Queen and her Heir to the throne
• Individual MPs or councillors
• Housing Associations
• Private companies performing public functions
(yet) such as rail companies
11. How do I send an FoI request?
• Simply send an email to FoI officer for the
authority concerned with your question
including:
• The requester’s real name
• An address where they can be contacted (an
email address counts)
• A description of the information you require
• FOI Directory has all the addresses for where
to send it to.
12. Ask for information
• It might sound simple but make sure you ask
for information. It’s all too easy to ask a
generic question to an authority. The Act
defines information as ‘information recorded
in any form’. The Act does not require an
authority to gather information it does not
already hold.
13. General tips
• Applying for something blindly will often not end
well – for you or the person dealing with the
request. If you’re applying for information
relating to a certain law/act make sure you look
at it beforehand.
• Try to avoid slang or colloquial/common phrases
for the information you are requesting as these
will most likely not be held by the authority.
Instead of asking for the number of convictions
for ‘joy riding’ find out what the legal term for it
is (‘Taking without owners consent’).
14. Check it hasn’t been asked before
• A crucial part of research before a request is
to see if the request has been made before.
All it will take is a simple Google search and
you should be able to find out. The
information could well be in the public
domain all ready.
• Check WhatDoTheyKnow website
15. Don’t be vague
• The more specific you are when you ask for
information the more likely you will be to get
it. Asking for data on a broad topic is more
likely to see the request rejected due to the
cost limit exemption (unless this information is
stored and easily searchable). The more
specific a request is the easier it should be, in
theory, for the official to find it.
16. General tips
• FoI Officer Bilal Ghafoor: ‘The biggest problem
with FoI requests from the media is they are not
very clear.’
• Do some pre-research to find out how the data
may be kept, what the terminology is. Remember
that much record-keeping is haphazard. You can
always try putting in a pre request phone call to
the organisation.
• FoI officers may be on £17k a year. It is not a high
level job. So make it easy for them.
• Be clear and concise.
17. General tips
• Be clear about the time limit - eg. from this
day to that date. The shorter the time limit
the less chance of being hit with a cost
exemption
• Ask for five years, but say also if that will be
too expensive three years or one year.
• Remain courteous and polite - keep it friendly.
• FoI officers have a legal duty to be helpful to
requesters - even in advance of request being
made.
18. Sample FoI template (FoI Directory)
Dear [Authority name]
I am writing to you under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to request the
following information from [authority name/department]:
[Insert what is being asked for]
Please provide the information in the form [insert form to be received in]
If it is not possible to provide the information requested due to the information
exceeding the cost of compliance limits identified in Section 12, please provide
advice and assistance, under your Section 16 obligations, as to how I can refine my
request to be included in the scope of the Act.
In any case, if you can identify ways that my request could be refined please provide
further advice and assistance to indicate this.
I look forward to your response within 20 working days, as stipulated by the Act.
If you have any queries please don’t hesitate to contact me via email or phone and I
will be happy to clarify what I am asking for, my details are outlined below.
Best wishes,
[Name]
19. Environmental Information
• Not covered by FoI but instead covered by
the
Environmental Information Regulations
• 20 working days can be extended to 40 days if
complex
• All exemptions subject to public interest test
• Like FoI but just state asking for information
under the EIR
20. Data Protection Act
• Journalists are exempt but can be used to
request information about yourself via a
subject access request (to any data holder)
• So could be used re: the police, Facebook,
your employer, a council you are getting up
the nose of…
21. More tips
• Ghafoor 'Records are essentially in a complete
mess in every organisation I have worked for...
• You can be original with your requests - but also
why not just copy ideas used elsewere in the
country
• Follow-ups, localise national stories, fact-
checking, events...
• Need to read the newspapers, keep a notepad
and note down ideas.
• FoI officer Lynn Wyeth: 'It is still quite new and
relatively few journalists make use of it' 2014
22. What if I am turned down?
• What if your request gets turned down?
• Try re-phrasing it (if costs)
• Try an internal review first. Must be done within two months off refusal.
Will often be succcessful
• Make the case why you think they are wrong - will need to read un the
specific exemption they have cited. Guidelines are available from the
Information Commissioner's office. Look at previous cases.
• You can then make an appeal to the Information Commissioner's office -
again read up on the law!
• ICO carries guidelines and also has a requestors’ helpline
• If that doesn't work there is the Information Tribunal, then an upper
tribunal which is above that
• Then High Court - then European Court.
• Refused requests are often the best ones. You must be prepared to fight
23. More tips
• Guy Basnett and Paul McNamara:
• Have great ideas
• Get the requests in
• Fight
• Disclosure would be prejudicial to conduct of
public affairs -
• Generally means you are on to a good story.
• Request correspondence - especially good as a
follow up to your own request if it is rejected.
24. Environmental information
• Subject to the Environmental Information
Regulations
• This is like FoI but covers Environmental
Information (little used)
• 20 working days can be extended to 40 days if
complex
• All exemptions subject to public interest test
• Make requests in the same way but make
clear you are doing so under the EIR
25. Awards
• Winning awards will get you a job
• There are the NCTJ Awards for Journalism
Excellence
http://www.nctj.com/index.php?pageid=434
• Regional Press Awards
• Research others
• Give the award entry nearly as much care and
attention as the original story
26. FoI in action at Press Gazette
• We found out pretty much nothing via FoI but
won a Paul Foot Award (finalist), British Media
Award specialist website of the year (Online
Media Awards). Mainly for FoI work.
• Mainly through our perseverance in tackling
the Met Police wall of silence over hacking
journalists’ call records.
30. Your turn
• Into groups devise your own FoI requests and send
them to me
• First research around subject – look at national/local
news
• Your own curiosity? What would you like to know?
• Talk about it – get the requests in! (TO ME –
dominicponsford@yahoo.co.uk)
• Police+fire, health, education, transport and parking,
other council (planning, bins, dog mess, parks…) Feel
free to depart from this if you wish. You have 100,000
public authorities to choose from.
• http://snipurl.com/foipres
