The UK has had legislation underpinning the public’s right to access information held by public authorities since 2000, when the Freedom of Information Act received Royal assent. It took five years for the right of access to come into force (on January 1st 2005), but since then the UK public (and journalists) have had the right to submit Freedom of Information (FOI) requests, if certain conditions are met, to require public authorities to release any information they hold relating to the request. The Act covers central government, executive agencies and any public bodies they sponsor, as well as devolved administrations such as the Scottish Parliament (Scottish FOI legislation is different in some respects to the regime in England and Wales), local authorities, the NHS, schools and universities, and the armed forces and police forces (Information Commissioner’s Office, n.d.).
Requests can be refused if it would cost too much or take too much staff time, if the request is vexatious, or if the request repeats a previous request from the same person. However, there are also a relatively wide range of 23 absolute and qualified exemptions covering issues such as national security and personal information, whereby the public body can withhold the information that has been requested.
The legislation was not created explicitly to benefit journalists, as several government representatives clarified over the first years of operation of the FOI regime; it was intended to be of equal utility for any member of the public, regardless of their occupation (Hayes, 2009, p.8). The process is relatively simple. As journalists experienced in UK FOI investigations put it: “If a public body holds the information, and doesn’t already publish it, all you need to do is put your request down in writing, and give your name and details of where to send the response… and within 20 working days they must send you their reply” (Basnett & McNamara, 2018).
In practice, however, obtaining information (from central government at least) can be time-consuming or difficult. A review of the availability of information on decision-making at FoI regimes across Europe by Access Info Europe found the UK to be one of the least likely countries to disclose information in full and one of the most likely to refuse to disclose information (Access Info, n.d.). The UK think-tank the Institute for Government compiled extensive data on FoI request compliance by UK government departments and found that, of 6,171 resolvable requests received by government departments in the 4th quarter of 2019, just 2,706 – under half – were granted in full, with 865 partially withheld and 2,354 withheld in full. There are significant disparities between government departments, with some departments considerably more likely to withhold information or to miss deadlines for resolving requests (Freeguard, 2020). A BBC investigation in 2017 also found persistent delays and unhelpfulness from government departments in their handling of FOI requests (Rosenbaum, 2017).
Overall, the freedom of information regime in the UK is a very positive resource for citizens and for journalists. However, the formal restrictions on access in a relatively wide variety of circumstances, and the informal intransigence of certain government departments to comply with requests from journalists means that there is a gap between the promise of freedom of information in the UK and its practice.
