Category: freedom of information

Circle the Wagons: They are Coming for the Information Tribunal – Panopticon

Posted July 28th, 2015 in consultations, fees, freedom of information, news, tribunals by sally

‘We all fell for it, didn’t we? If the greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist, then Michael Gove’s may have been to convince everyone that he wasn’t interested in FOIA. His shunting responsibility for FOIA/EIR matters off to the Cabinet Office, and the Cabinet Office’s announcement of the Commission on Freedom of Information (generally staffed by people who publicly don’t much like it), last week has led to a lot of comment and reaction – mostly adverse – from social media, blogs and even the mainstream press.’

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Panopticon, 24th July 2015

Source: www.panopticonblog.com

Law firm loses FoI bid to learn names of complainants – Legal Futures

Posted July 27th, 2015 in freedom of information, law firms, news, professional conduct, Solicitors Regulation Authority by sally

‘A law firm which demanded the details of people who had contacted the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) to allege misconduct has been firmly rebuffed by the Law Society’s freedom of information commissioner.’

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Legal Futures, 27th July 2015

Source: www.legalfutures.co.uk

Time to End the Time Debate – Panopticon

Posted July 27th, 2015 in freedom of information, news, public interest, rendition by sally

‘The apparently endless APPGER litigation has produced yet another decision of the Upper Tribunal for seasoned FOIA watchers, which amongst some very fact-specific issues, also contains two important clarifications of law: APPGER v ICO & FCO [2015] UKUT 377 (AAC).’

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Panopticon, 23rd July 2015

Source: www.panopticonblog.com

‘Cassie’s law’: 609 drivers lose licence after tougher police power on eye tests – The Guardian

Posted July 27th, 2015 in driving licences, freedom of information, news, police by sally

‘Hundreds of motorists have had their driving licence revoked after failing roadside eye tests under new police powers, figures have shown.’

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The Guardian, 26th July 2015

Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Secret ‘Practice Directions’ and Royal Wills – Panopticon

Posted July 17th, 2015 in disclosure, freedom of information, news, practice directions, royal family, wills by tracey

‘Mr Brown became a well-known figure in litigation circles when he sought to unseal the Will of Princess Margaret in the belief that it might reveal information showing him to be her illegitimate son. In the course of his unsuccessful litigation, it was revealed that there existed what had been described orally during the court proceedings as a “Practice Direction in respect of the handling of Royal Wills” (although there is dispute over precisely what form this document takes and whether it is really a Practice Direction at all), produced by the-then President of the Family Division following liaison with the Royal Household.’

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Panopticon, 16th July 2015

Source: www.panopticonblog.com

Council was entitled to refuse disclosure of planning documents, tribunal rules – OUT-LAW.com

Posted July 10th, 2015 in appeals, disclosure, environmental protection, freedom of information, judicial review, legal profession, local government, news, planning, privilege, public interest, solicitors, tribunals by tracey

‘The First-Tier Tribunal has dismissed an appeal and held that following a freedom of information request Aylesbury Vale District Council was entitled to refuse disclosure of correspondence between its solicitor and the planning department.’

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OUT-LAW.com, 9th July 2015

Source: www.out-law.com

Data protection regulator launches staunch defence of Freedom of Information Act – The Independent

Posted July 7th, 2015 in data protection, freedom of information, legislation, news by sally

‘The regulator in charge of data protection and consumer protection has given a staunch defence of Britain’s embattled transparency laws, only days after Justice Secretary Michael Gove confirmed he was considering a crackdown on freedom of information laws.’
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The Independent, 2nd July 2015

Source: www.independent.co.uk

Liz Fisher: A Decade in the Glasshouse – UK Constitutional Law Association

Posted June 26th, 2015 in freedom of information, news by sally

‘The UK Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) came fully into force on the 1 January 2005. There is thus now over a decade’s worth of law in relation to it. Yet, discussions of FOIA have remained marginal to administrative law. It tends to be only touched on in administrative law textbooks and any substantive treatment of the topic is in specialist texts. One only needs to look at this blog to see it isn’t seen as a major topic of debate among public lawyers (although note Judith Bannister’s recent post).’

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UK Constitutional Law Association, 24th June 2015

Source: www.ukconstitutionallaw.org

Government ordered to publish redacted fracking report in full – The Guardian

Posted June 19th, 2015 in energy, environmental protection, fracking, freedom of information, news, reports by tracey

‘A heavily-redacted government report on the impacts of fracking on house prices, businesses and services in rural areas must be published in full, the UK’s information commissioner has ruled.’

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The Guardian, 18th June 2015

Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Ex-government insiders reveal email FOI regime – BBC News

Posted June 18th, 2015 in electronic mail, freedom of information, government departments, news by sally

‘Ministers can easily protect themselves from embarrassment by deleting from their email inbox anything that might be subject to a future FOI request, ex-insiders have told BBC News.’

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BBC News, 18th June 2015

Source: www.bbc.co.uk

Number of sexual assaults reported on children rises to 85 a day – The Guardian

Posted June 17th, 2015 in charities, children, freedom of information, news, sexual offences, statistics, victims by sally

‘Police are recording 85 sexual assaults on children each day after an increase of more than a third in reports of abuse and exploitation, new figures have revealed.’

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The Guardian, 17th June 2015

Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Release ‘critical’ reports into privately run immigration centres, ICO orders – The Guardian

Posted June 16th, 2015 in disclosure, freedom of information, immigration, news, publishing, reports by sally

‘Potentially damaging reports into the running of two immigration detention centres by private contractors must be released by the Home Office within weeks, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has said.’

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The Guardian, 15th June 2015

Source: www.guardian.co.uk

We all had a right to see Prince Charles’s letters. But not any more, it seems – The Guardian

Posted June 5th, 2015 in disclosure, freedom of information, lobbying, media, news, parliament, privacy, royal family by sally

‘Downing Street’s decision to publish the second batch of letters that Prince Charles had sent to ministers was unexpected. The government had been preparing to resist the publication of the latest batch, covering the years 2006 to 2009, even though a previous batch, covering 2004 and 2005, was released after a ten-year legal battle with the Guardian.’

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The Guardian, 4th June 2015

Source: www.guardian.co.uk

‘Black Spiders’ case shows need for guidance on FOI veto powers – OUT-LAW.com

Posted June 2nd, 2015 in appeals, documents, freedom of information, ministers' powers and duties, news, royal family, Supreme Court, veto by sally

‘The UK government must give new guidance to public authorities on when government ministers can exercise powers of veto to prevent the disclosure of information under freedom of information (FOI) laws.’
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OUT-LAW.com, 2nd June 2015

Source: www.out-law.com

Court of Appeal rules on vexatious and unreasonable information requests – Local Government Lawyer

Posted May 21st, 2015 in appeals, freedom of information, local government, news, vexatious litigants by sally

‘The Court of Appeal has handed down a key ruling on the scope of a public authority’s power to reject a request for information as ‘vexatious’ or ‘manifestly unreasonable’.’

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Local Government Lawyer, 20th May 2015

Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk

Publication of the Black Spider Memos: a hollow victory? – Halsbury’s Law Exchange

Posted May 19th, 2015 in attorney general, disclosure, documents, freedom of information, news, royal family, veto by sally

‘On 13th April, the Guardian were finally able to publish the ‘black spider memos,’ private correspondence between Prince Charles and several government departments between September 2004 and March 2005.’

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Halsbury’s Law Exchange, 18th May 2015

Source: www.halsburyslawexchange.co.uk

Dransfield v Information Commissioner and another; Craven v Information Commissioner and another – WLR Daily

Posted May 15th, 2015 in environmental protection, freedom of information, law reports by tracey

Dransfield v Information Commissioner and another: Craven v Information Commissioner and another; [2015] EWCA Civ 454; [2015] WLR (D) 215

‘The Court of Appeal gave guidance as to the approach of a decision-maker when determining, for the purposes of section 14(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2004, whether a right to information request was vexatious and whether, for the purposes of regulation 12(4)(b) of the Environmental Information Regulations 2004, a request for environmental information was “manifestly unreasonable”.’

WLR Daily, 14th May 2015

Source:www.iclr.co.uk

Court exceeded its power in ordering publication of Charles memos – Straw – The Guardian

Posted May 15th, 2015 in freedom of information, news, parliament, privacy, royal family, Supreme Court by tracey

‘Jack Straw, a former Labour cabinet minister and one of the architects of the Freedom of Information Act, has said that the Prince of Wales’s memos to ministers should have remained secret and that the supreme court exceeded its power in backing the Guardian’s fight for publication.’

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The Guardian, 14th May 2015

Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Prince Charles’s ‘black spider’ letters set for publication after 10 year legal battle – The Independent

Posted May 13th, 2015 in freedom of information, news, royal family, Supreme Court, tribunals by tracey

‘The Royal Family’s reputation for political neutrality faces its most serious challenge in a generation as the “black spider” memos written by Prince Charles to senior ministers are finally set to published after a 10-year legal battle.’

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The Independent, 12th May 2015

Source: www.independent.co.uk

Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority v Information Commissioner and another – WLR Daily

Posted May 11th, 2015 in disclosure, expenses, freedom of information, law reports, parliament by sally

Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority v Information Commissioner and another [2015] EWCA Civ 388; [2015] WLR (D) 194

‘A journalist who, under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, requested information in three invoices submitted by Members of Parliament as expenses claims was entitled to redacted copies of the documents themselves, not merely to a transcript of information contained in those documents, because the transcripts did not provide all the information which the statutory public authority was obliged to disclose to the requester.’

WLR Daily, 28th April 2015

Source: www.iclr.co.uk