Other FOI News
New Inquiry: Post-Legislative Scrutiny of the Freedom of Information Act
The Justice Select Committee, chaired by Sir Alan Beith, is launching a call for written evidence for its post-legislative scrutiny of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
The inquiry will be informed by the Ministry of Justice’s memorandum on the Freedom of Information Act 2000 which can be found at:
http://www.justice.gov.uk/publications/policy/moj/post-legislative-scrutiny-foi.htm
The Committee invites written evidence on the issues set out below (although respondents are welcome to address additional issues):
- Does the Freedom of Information Act work effectively?
- What are the strengths and weaknesses of the Freedom of Information Act?
- Is the Freedom of Information Act operating in the way that it was intended to?
The deadline for submissions is Friday 3 February 2012 .
Call for evidence: Written evidence should be in MS Word (no later than 2007) or rich text format (please do not send PDF’s) with as little use of colour or logos as possible, and sent by e-mail to: "> This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
The body of the e-mail must include a contact name , telephone number and postal address .
The e-mail should also make clear who the submission is from. Deadline for submissions is 3 February 2012 .
Submissions must address the terms of reference. They should be in the format of a self-contained memorandum and should be no more than 3,000 words.
Paragraphs should be numbered for ease of reference, and the document must include an executive summary. Further guidance on the submission of evidence can be found at www.parliament.uk/parliamentary_committees/witness.cfm
Submissions should be original work, not previously published or circulated elsewhere, though previously published work can be referred to in a submission and submitted as supplementary material. Once submitted, your submission becomes the property of the Committee and no public use should be made of it unless you have first obtained permission from the Clerk of the Committee.
PLEASE BE AWARE THAT THE JUSTICE COMMITTEE IS UNABLE TO INVESTIGATE INDIVIDUAL CASES .
The Committee normally, though not always, chooses to publish the written evidence it receives, either by printing the evidence, publishing it on the internet or making it publicly available through the Parliamentary Archives. If there is any information you believe to be sensitive you should highlight it and explain what harm you believe would result from its disclosure; the Committee will take this into account in deciding whether to publish or further disclose the evidence.
For data protection purposes, it would be helpful if individuals wishing to submit written evidence send their contact details in a covering letter or e-mail.
You should be aware that there may be circumstances in which the House of Commons will be required to communicate information to third parties on request, in order to comply with its obligations under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
Report on Problematical Exceptions to Transparency at the IFIs
Source: Centre for Law and Democracy
5 January 2012: For immediate release
Report on Problematical Exceptions to Transparency at the IFIs
In recent years, the openness of international financial institutions (IFIs) has improved considerably. An ongoing problem area, however, is the overbroad regimes of exceptions in IFI transparency policies and, in particular, the exceptions relating to internal deliberations and third-party commercial information. A new report by CLD – Openness Policies of the International Financial Institutions: Failing to Make the Grade with Exceptions – examines how these exceptions are dealt with at the national level, contrasting that with the much more secretive approach of the IFIs.
The report, which CLD produced as a member of the Global Transparency Initiative (GTI), explores in detail the way each of the two exceptions have been interpreted at the national level in better practice jurisdictions. It then contrasts this with the policies of the IFIs, thereby highlighting how the IFI approach is in almost every case overly broad, often by a wide margin. The GTI has always maintained that the IFIs, as organisations which are supported by public money and which perform public functions, are subject to the same disclosure obligations under international law as other public authorities.
“The GTI has had enormous success in advocating for stronger transparency policies at the IFIs,” said Toby Mendel, Executive Director of the Centre for Law and Democracy. “These two exceptions are among the most significant remaining obstacles in these policies to openness. We hope that by demonstrating how they are approached at the national level we can help convince IFIs to narrow them down.”
CLD intends to distribute copies of the report widely among key stakeholders, including to representatives of the IFIs themselves. We aim to follow this up, working with the GTI, with a process of policy dialogue around these exceptions with the IFIs in the hope of spurring a change in policy.
An electronic copy of the report is available at:
http://www.law-democracy.org/?p=1575
For further information, please contact:
Michael Karanicolas
Legal Officer
Centre for Law and Democracy
email:
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
tel: +1 902 448-5290
www.law-democracy.org
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