Freedom of Information readiness 'patchy', warns Committee

"Our report is a snapshot of how well prepared public bodies are for implementation on 1st January," said Committee Chairman Alan Beith MP. "The Department for Constitutional Affairs has had four years to prepare for freedom of information but with less than a month to go it appears that some bodies may not be well enough prepared."

The Freedom of Information Act (FOI Act) applies only to UK Public Authorities – Scottish Public Authorities have similar, but separate legislation, also due to come into force on 1st January 2005 – and gives the general public rights to access information held by around 100,000 public authorities, including the police, NHS Trusts and GPs.

But according to the report, some public bodies may have problems in complying with their new obligations, despite the fact that the Act bringing in the changes received its royal assent in 2000.

The report reveals that while good progress appears to have been made in Whitehall departments, elsewhere the state of readiness is less encouraging.

The failure of the Department for Constitutional Affairs (DCA) to provide strategic control, leadership or early enough guidance to public bodies on the technical aspects of implementation is partly to blame for the current situation, concludes the report.

The high turnover of DCA staff has also exacerbated the problems.

The report adds that the lateness of guidance from the DCA on matters such as fees meant that crucial issues have had to be addressed by public bodies at the last moment, giving them only a few weeks instead of four years to prepare for FOI. Training, in particular, has been hampered by delays in DCA decisions and guidance.

While the report praises the police service for their efforts to be ready for FOI, it cautions that some local authorities will not be compliant with the new open information regime, and that "successful compliance will be dependent on a relatively low initial level of requests."

The report also queries the readiness of the health service, explaining that "some of the evidence on implementation of FOI in the health sector gave the impression of FOI simply being regarded as another hurdle that had to be surmounted, with little sign of the cultural change in attitudes towards openness which the DCA has suggested will follow from FOI."

"Every effort must be taken in these last few weeks to iron out any remaining hurdles," said Alan Beith. "Freedom of Information is not an optional extra that public bodies can sign up to if they want to; it is a legal obligation that they must be ready for."