Council to monitor Freedom of Information requests

A NEW central record of requests made under the Freedom of Information Act?is to be introduced by Woking Borough Council, in order?to keep tabs on people who "abuse the system".

Following a?question from a concerned councillor at a meeting last month, the centralised recording of FOI?requests is to be introduced next year.

Council bosses hope the change will make responses more consistent and promote "pro-active dissemination".

Cllr Bryan Cross, Liberal Democrat?member?for Goldsworth East, raised the issue at a full council meeting on October 21 with a Freedom of Information-style question of his own.

In his five-part?submission to council officers, Cllr Cross asked for details on how much money had been spent by?the borough council?preparing answers to requests over the past two years, and how many had been received in total.

Cllr Cross tried unsuccessfully to find out the highest number of requests made by one individual, and also asked what proportion came from media organisations.

Cllr John Kingsbury, leader of the council, told Cllr Cross he was unable to divulge specifics as the information was not "centrally or separately monitored".

He said: “The council recognises that with the increase in use of FOI requests, particularly from a small number of individuals and companies, a more formal recording protocol may be required to ensure that requests are not missed and abuse of the system by malicious complainants is more easily identified.”

Now the matter is due to be discussed at a meeting of the executive committee on Thursday (November 25).

In the official notice of motion, Cllr Cross asked the council to update its policies so that each request must go before a director or head of the council’s legal service before it could be released.

He said: “This council recognises the importance of openness and transparency with its stakeholders.

“One way of achieving this is that all replies to FOI requests received by this council should in future be approved by the director or the head of legal services before they are released to the enquirer to ensure that replies given are comprehensive and complete.”

In a statement responding to Cllr Cross’s request, the council confirmed a central record of FOI requests would be kept from next April, which it hoped?would serve three main purposes.

The statement read: “First, it will identify areas of information that might benefit from pro-active dissemination.

“Second, it will help to ensure that FOI requests are properly and consistently dealt with.

“Third, it will make it easier to identify persons who abuse the system by submitting repeated requests for information.”

But the council confirmed it would retain?its current system for allocating responsibility?for requests, rather than referring all automatically to a senior level.

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php
Five Filters featured article: Beyond Hiroshima - The Non-Reporting of Falluja's Cancer Catastrophe.

View the original article here

Freedom of Information law in January

- PM gives to commitment to Nat’l Assembly

Prime Minister Samuel Hinds in a letter to the Speaker of the National Assembly and copied to Opposition Leader, Robert Corbin, and Leader of the Alliance For Change, Raphael Trotman, announced that a new deadline for the Government Access to Information Bill has been set.
According to Hinds, in keeping with the recent pronouncements by Head of State Bharrat Jagdeo, he was informing the House that the government intends to bring the Access to Information Bill in January.
Trotman told this newspaper that he felt it was a victory, given that the government has now been forced to make a pronouncement on the issue.
He did point out that there have been several deadlines issued before, all of which the government failed to honour.
Trotman said that he is going to engage the government to see how sincere they are with the new deadline.
Only recently Trotman had written to the Speaker of the National Assembly asking that the Bill in his name be placed on the order paper for debate before the end of this month.
Subsequent to that announcement a government source had stated that Trotman’s Bill was very weak and a cut and paste job.
Trotman responded by pointing out that the Bill he had tabled was reviewed by a reputable Commonwealth body which had even had an input in the Bill
Several Government officials, including President Jagdeo, had said that the Bill would be tabled in the House by August before the Parliamentary recess but this did not happen.
The Bill is yet to be placed before the National Assembly.
Contacted recently as it relates to the fact that the Bill is yet to become a reality, People’s Progressive Party General Secretary Donald Ramotar said that it is not because of any lack of political will.
He said that all stakeholders agree that the legislation is important and necessary, but he stressed that the delay was as a result of the limited capacity as it relates to drafting.
Ramotar stated that it is not just the Freedom of Information Bill that is being affected, but a number of other Bills that are being drafted.
The essence of the Freedom of Information Act, according to the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA), is the empowerment of the populace to request any piece of information (with few exceptions, such as medical records) held by a public authority.
President Bharrat Jagdeo, during the Summit of Americas in Trinidad and Tobago last year April, had announced that within three months the government would table Freedom of Information Legislation.

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php
Five Filters featured article: Beyond Hiroshima - The Non-Reporting of Falluja's Cancer Catastrophe.

View the original article here