Freedom of Information Act : The Act

Freedom of Information Act

Legislation & Email Archiving : an update
Executive Summary
Key aspects of the act
Code of practise on 'The Management of Records by Public Authorities'
Questions to ask your email administrators
References

The Freedom of Information Act

Legislation concerning an individual’s right to access any information being stored on him or herself has been in place since the introduction of the Data Protection ACT (1998). This Act compels every organisation to comply with any request made to access information held within 20 working days of such a request being made.

Very few organisations could meet a request to produce all information held with their email system on a particular subject, within 20 working days. The Freedom of Information Act was passed on 30th November 2000. It gives a general right of access to all types of recorded information held by public authorities, sets out exemptions from that right and places a number of obligations on public authorities.

Any person, who makes a request to a public authority for that information, must be informed whether the public authority holds that information and if it does, that information must be supplied. Public authorities are required by a range of legislation to maintain accurate and appropriate records; just deleting the records and email to avoid compliance could render the authority in breach.

Individual rights of access to information under the Freedom of Information Act will come into force across all public authorities on 1st January 2005.

The Act states:

General right of access to information held by public authorities.

1. - (1) Any person making a request for information to a public authority is entitled-

to be informed in writing by the public authority whether it holds information of the description specified in the request, and
if that is the case, to have that information communicated to him.

Time for compliance with request.

10. A public authority must comply with section 1(1) promptly and in any event not later than the twentieth working

The Freedom of Information Act also makes clear the penalties for noncompliance with the Act:

Failure to comply with notice.

54. - (1) If a public authority has failed to comply with-

so much of a decision notice as requires steps to be taken,
an information notice, or
an enforcement notice,

The Commissioner may certify in writing to the court that the public authority has failed to comply with that notice.
(2) For the purposes of this section, a public authority which, in purported compliance with an information notice-

makes a statement which it knows to be false in a material respect, or
recklessly makes a statement which is false in a material respect,

is to be taken to have failed to comply with the notice.
(3) Where a failure to comply is certified under subsection (1), the court may inquire into the matter and, after hearing any witness who may be produced against or on behalf of the public authority, and after hearing any statement that may be offered in defence, deal with the authority as if it had committed a contempt of court.