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

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A public body (the term used in the Act is ‘public authority’) is defi ned as any ministry, department,
executive agency or other government agency, any statutory body, a parish council (local councils), the
urban councils of Kingston and St. Andrew Corporations and any government corporation in which the
government or an agency thereof has a 50% or greater interest. A government corporation, in turn, is
defi ned as a company registered under the Companies Act in relation to which the government or an
agency thereof is in a position to infl uence policy.
The minister may by order subject to affi rmative resolution extend the application of the Act to other
government corporations (in other words, those in which the government has a less than 50% interest) or
any other body which provides services of a public nature which are “essential to the welfare” of Jamaican
society, subject to such limitations as the minister may consider appropriate (sections 5(3)-(4)). He or she
may also, again by order subject to affi rmative resolution, provide for the non-application of the Act to any
statutory body (section 5(6(d)) or limit the application of the Act in relation to government corporations
covered by the main defi nition (i.e. those in which the government has a 50% or greater interest) as he or
she deems appropriate (section 5(5).
The Act also provides for the complete exclusion from its ambit of certain public bodies, namely the
Governor-General, in relation to powers and duties conferred or imposed by the constitution or any other
law, and the security and intelligence services – namely the various police and defence forces – in relation
to their strategic and operational intelligence gathering operations. Finally, the Act does not apply to
the judicial functions of courts or holders or judicial offi ces, although it does apply to documents of an
administrative nature held by courts (sections 5(6)-(8)).
The Act thus applies broadly to public bodies and allows the minister to extend application to both private
corporations over which the government has an infl uence and other private bodies providing essential
public services. At the same time, the minister is given the power to restrict the application of the Act
to government corporations and statutory public bodies. This is unfortunate and could lead to exclusion
of bodies from the ambit of the Act on political grounds. The exclusions from the Act are unnecessary,
although analogous exclusions are found in some other RTI laws. It is preferable to cover all public bodies
and then to provide for appropriate exceptions to protect any legitimate secrecy interests.
Procedural Guarantees
Anyone may make an application for access to a document in writing, by telephone or by other electronic
means (section 7(2)). No reasons are required to be given when requesting information (section 6(3)).
The only formal condition on applications is that they should describe the document sought suffi ciently
clearly to enable the public body to identify it and, where requested, assistance should be provided to this
end. Furthermore, where the information provided by the applicant is insuffi cient to identify the document
sought, the public body shall provide the applicant with an opportunity to consult with a view to identifying
the document (sections 7(2) and (3), and 10(1)).
The 2003 Regulations provide a simple form for written requests (Form 1 of the Schedule to those
Regulations), although use of this form is not required. Pursuant to regulation 8(1), where an application is
made by telephone or electronically, the responsible offi cer shall take the necessary measures to record
and store it on Form 1. Regulation 9 requires responsible offi cers to provide such assistance as may be
necessary to help an applicant make a written request where that person is unable to do so either because
of limited language skills or disability. Every request shall be acknowledged “in the prescribed manner”
(section 7(3)(b)), a task which, pursuant to the Regulations, is undertaken by the ‘responsible offi cer’ (see
regulation 4(a)).
A request must be responded to as soon as possible and in any case within 30 days, although this may
be extended by up to another 30 days where there is ‘reasonable cause’, upon notice with reasons being
provided to the applicant (sections 7(4) and (5)). Where a requested document is held by another public
body or relates more closely to the work of another body, the request may be transferred to that body as
soon as possible and in any case within 14 days. In this case, the applicant must be notifi ed immediately