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THE freedom of information (FoI) regime is being blighted by a backlog of cases, delays in releasing data and a continuing culture of secrecy among many government officials.
Almost a year after the law took effect, much confusion remains among businesses, officials and lawyers over how the rules demanding the release of information from public bodies should be applied. Campaigners say some government departments are taking too long to respond to requests.
The act has led to the release of much public information, from subsidies paid to farmers under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) to restaurant hygiene inspection reports and the amount raised by parking fines.
The Freedom of information Act, which came into force on January 01, requires 100,000 public bodies to answer requests for information within 20 working days. The authorities have to supply the information unless it falls within a series of exempt categories, although some exemptions can be overridden "in the pubic interest".
One of the biggest problems is the backlog of appeals against public authorities' refusals to divulge data that are waiting to be dealt with by the FoI watchdog. Richard Thomas, the information commissioner, has received 2,331 complaints, of which 1,258 remain to be resolved. But there have been formal decisions published in just 120 of the more complicated cases.
Maurice Frankel, director of the Campaign for the Freedom of Information, is concerned that the information commissioner has such a large backlog even though the number of complaints received was in line with expectations. He said the longer it took to resolve appeals against public bodies, "the longer potentially bad practice may go unchecked".
He said: "It's a serious problem because if you have waited six months to hear from the commissioner you are unlikely to go down that route again with another information request."
As relatively few cases have reached a formal decision, there is still a lack of precedent to clarify crucial points of law, such as the public interest test.
Michael Smyth, head of public policy at law firm Clifford Chance, said: "It is technically difficult for us to advise our clients on various aspects when so few decisions are coming through on the big points of law."
He said businesses needed more clarity on how exemptions to disclosure would apply on issues such as confidentiality provisions in contracts, what would be deemed commercially sensitive and for how long data should remain confidential.
The information commissioner's office said it had brought in a raft of measures, including extra staff, to speed up the handling of FoI appeals. It said: "The backlog is really being addressed. We have closed 250 cases in just the past month."
The first few cases have now reached the information tribunal, which handles appeals against Mr Thomas's decisions. The early judgements, including a ruling that authorities should try to retrieve requested data when it had been deleted from a computer, suggest it will lean towards ordering greater openness.
Some departments have faced far more requests than others, as businesses target the most potentially lucrative sources of information. Interest in procurement contracts, for example, explains the demands placed on the Ministry of Defence. It received more than 3,700 requests in the first three quarters of the year, compared with fewer than 500 lodged at the Treasury.
Across government and other public bodies, the number of requests has dropped steadily from 13,600 in the first quarter of the year to 8,400 in the second quarter and 7,500 in the third, suggesting there was an initial peak in volumes triggered by the act's implementation, according to the Department for Constitutional Affairs, which oversees the FoI regime.
The Treasury and Home Office stand out as the most consistent laggards. Despite speeding up since the first quarter of this year, when more than half the requests to each department were not answered in time, the latest figures for July to September show they still missed the deadline for more than one in five of requests.
When the act came into force in January, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) -- with most of Whitehall -- set up a website to publish information it released that was of "wider public interest". But only 13 items appear on that site, the most recent on June 21.
The DTI blamed this paucity of information on "a resources issue", saying lack of staff meant it had been forced to give priority to answering requests rather than making the information publicly available. "There's not a statutory obligation to do that [publish the information]," an official said.
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FT Syndication Service
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