Freedom of Information: A Comparative Legal Survey - Federation of ...

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The Law does not include a section on purpose, although the long title refers generally to its purpose as
being to “make provision for the disclosure of information held by public authorities”.
The Law defi nes information simply as “information recorded in any form,” (section 84) which is held by
the public body at the time the request is received (section 1(4)). It is understood that this includes any
information whatsoever held by a public body, regardless of its form, status, date received and whether
or not it was produced by the body. The Law also provides that information is understood to be held by a
public body if it is held otherwise than on behalf of someone else, or if someone else holds it on behalf of
the body (section 3(2)). Thus, public bodies cannot escape their obligations simply by getting someone else
to hold the information.
The main means under the Law for designating public bodies is through a list in Schedule 1, running to
some 18 pages. The list includes all government departments, the various legislative bodies (the Law
does not cover Scotland, which has its own law), 285 the armed forces and numerous other bodies listed
individually by name. It does not, however, include the special forces, which are completely excluded from
the ambit of the Law.
The Law also provides that the Secretary of State may add to or remove from the list of bodies in Schedule
1 subject to certain conditions (section 4), or more generally designate as public, bodies which “exercise
functions of a public nature” or which provide contract services for a public body (section 5). A number of
section 4 orders have been made. 286
Finally, publicly-owned corporations, defi ned as bodies wholly owned by the Crown or a public body other
than a government department, are also public bodies (section 6). The Law also provides that where a
body is designated as a public body only in relation to certain information, the obligation of disclosure is
similarly restricted to that information (section 7).
There have been attempts recently, in the form of the MacLean Bill, 287 to remove parliament from the
ambit of the Law, but these were fi ercely criticised and now appear to be dead. 288 More encouragingly, a
consultation was announced on 25 October 2007 to consider extending the scope of the Law to a wider
range of private bodies performing public functions. 289
The right to access information under the United Kingdom RTI Law is not limited by nationality or
residence.
Procedural Guarantees
A request to access information must be in writing and specify the name and address of the applicant,
as well as a description of the information desired. A request is deemed to be in writing if it is received
electronically, as long as it is legible and capable of being used for subsequent reference (section 8).
Although the Law does not specifi cally state that reasons are not required when making a request, this
is implicit given that reasons are not included in the list of what must be provided. 290 Public bodies are
required to provide such assistance to applicants, “as it would be reasonable to expect the authority to do”
(section 16). The extent of this obligation is elaborated on in the Code of Practice adopted by the Secretary
of State pursuant to section 45 of the Law. 291 While the Code is not formally binding of itself, it is widely
considered to be an authoritative elaboration of provisions in the Law which are binding. Public bodies
must assist those unable to frame their requests in writing, either by directing them to bodies which
can help them or, exceptionally, by reducing the request to writing themselves (paragraph 7). Where a
request does not describe the information sought in suffi cient detail, assistance should also be provided
(paragraphs 8-9).
A public body must normally either provide the information or inform the applicant of its refusal to do so
promptly and, in any case, within twenty working days. For the purpose of calculating the twenty days, the
time between informing the applicant of the fees to be paid and the date on which those fees are actually