FOI Man welcomes Government moves to improve transparency across the public sector. But a more pro-active approach to publication of data mustn’t be used as justification for (or a smokescreen for) weakening the right to make requests for information through the Freedom of Information Act.

The Government’s Transparency Board is, as they say,  just what it says on the tin. It is a Board that champions transparency across the public sector, chaired by Francis Maude. Its membership is impressive, including in its number Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, and Professor Nigel Shadbolt, a champion of open data. And as you’d expect from such an institution, its minutes are published online.

The minutes of the latest meeting of 2 March are already available to anyone who’s interested. They include a discussion of the Freedom of Information Act and its relation to the transparency agenda. The thing that strikes me about the report of this discussion is that a presentation on FOI very quickly gets usurped by the general discussion about open data, despite the fact that the rest of the meeting covers much the same ground. This may be just the way its been recorded, and it may not be anything to worry about, but the sense to me is that FOI isn’t seen as a significant part of this process. There seems to be a belief that wider transparency is almost a ‘cure’ for rising FOI requests (which I’m sceptical of, by the way). To quote the minutes:

“It was noted that a move towards proactive publication, rather than just a response to requests for data, was firmly in line with the aims of the Transparency Board.”

Obviously, the Government is keen to press its own agenda, and doesn’t want to work within the straightjacket of the previous Government’s law. Though in truth, there seems little in their agenda that FOI didn’t already permit – it’s a difference of emphasis rather than real substance. Which isn’t to say that an emphasis on more transparency isn’t welcome.

But I think that those who support FOI as a powerful tool for opening up Government ought to be watching developments carefully. I’m still nervous that the Government at some point is going to suggest that as they’re disclosing all this data, there’s a reduced need for the general right of access (the right to make FOI requests). That they use this agenda to bring in restrictions on that right, such as a prohibitive fees regime. This won’t happen until after the post-legislative scrutiny process has been completed of course, but we need to keep an eye on where that scrutiny is led.

The general right of access is very important. As I’ve said before, it means that you choose what information you want (subject to statutory exemptions approved by Parliament). Increased pro-active disclosure is valuable, of course, but it means that the public body, or Government, chooses what it will allow you to have access to. True transparency requires both to be truly effective, not an either/or.

So it should be Public Data + FOI.