The Freedom of Information (FOI) Act came into full effect on 1st January, giving individuals for the first time the statutory right to see a massive amount of information held by Government departments and thousands of public bodies.
People now have a right to information on the way decisions are made, and public money is spent, by more than 100,000 public authorities, including Government departments, schools, NHS Trusts, police forces and local authorities.
Under the Act, anyone, of any nationality, and living anywhere in the world, can make a written request for information, and expect a response within 20 working days. The 20 days are calculated from the day after a request is received.
Public authorities must disclose properly requested information unless an exemption applies. In most cases, even where an exemption applies, they must still disclose information to the public if the public interest in disclosure is greater than the competing public interest in the particular exemption.
The Government revealed in February that the National Archives, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the MoD were top targets for requests under the new regime – but the MoD must surely claim the prize for the most unusual requests, including:
Jane Lewis, the Assistant Director for the FOI team at the MoD, said "Some of the requests we get are more eccentric than others, but we take each request very seriously and answer it as fully as we can."
According to the MoD, the department has actually responded in full to more requests than any other single department has received. With 67% of requests granted in full and many more released in part, the MoD says that it has one of the lowest levels of refusals of FOI requests in Government.
A selection of the responses to the requests can be found at the Ministry of Defence Freedom of Information Reading Room