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Private companies to be subject to FoI law
News Justice Minister Michael Wills told the audience at a data-protection event in London on Wednesday that the government had been consulting on the extension of the Freedom of Information Act (FoI) and would announce the results in the near future.
[May 14, 2009, 13:18]
MP slams Cabinet Office's email destruction
News MP Derek Wyatt, who is currently leading a parliamentary charge to ban spam, said on Tuesday he would be disappointed if the government had resorted to clearing inboxes as a way of avoiding embarrassment from the Freedom of Information Act (FoI).
[December 21, 2004, 15:55]
Time for the Ministry of Information?
News Public bodies should regard record keeping and document management, FoI (Freedom of Information) and the re-use of PSI as a single management challenge. To some extent the government's work on the FoI initiative may well have eclipsed work on the...
[August 9, 2005, 14:30]
Data watchdog probes government email bonfire
News Wyatt, who is leading a parliamentary charge against spammers, said he would be disappointed if the government had resorted to clearing inboxes as a way of avoiding embarrassment from the Freedom of Information Act (FoI).
[December 22, 2004, 11:30]
Gov't agencies fall short on data accuracy
News Garlik, a UK company that helps people find which of their personal information exists online, sent out the FoI requests between September and November last year. The FoI requests asked 30 government departments four questions about their handling...
[January 22, 2009, 16:09]
BCS to offer compliance training
News The British Computer Society (BCS) is to issue a Certificate in Freedom of Information (FoI) in response to concerns that the public sector is poorly prepared for the legislation. It said there are worries that necessary IT will not be in place...
[December 6, 2004, 13:00]
EDS investigations revealed
News The Office of Government Commerce (OGC) has investigated IT supplier EDS four times over the past three years, a Freedom of Information (FoI) Act request has revealed. The existence of the reports was admitted in an FoI disclosure published on 11...
[February 16, 2005, 11:40]
Civil Service denies email foul play
News The Civil Service department insisted the move was part of an ongoing management policy to avoid wasting taxpayers' money and not a way of ducking the Freedom of Information Act (FoI). It's nothing to do with FoI.
[December 20, 2004, 12:30]
Contractors won't be subject to FoI
Blog The CBI was particularly vehement when it came to arguing against extending the FoI Act to private-sector government contractors, saying that the costs of FoI requests would have to be passed onto the taxpayer:
[July 20, 2009, 16:40]
FoI opens up intelligence files
News Included in the FoI information online are files on security arrangements in the Channel Tunnel, documents on the miners' strike, a review of the Chemical Defense Establishment at Porton Down, and papers on the resignation of prime minister Harold...
[January 5, 2005, 14:21]
Rupert Goodwins' Diary
Blog All in favour of FoI -- too much secrecy is never a good thing. These are public documents, the newspaper claims, and as such covered under the US Freedom of Information act. Bang! Wallop! As I struggle to wakefulness with the sound of the Today...
[November 1, 1997, 7:00]
Rupert Goodwins' Diary
News All in favour of FoI -- too much secrecy is never a good thing. These are public documents, the newspaper claims, and as such covered under the US Freedom of Information act. Bang! Wallop! As I struggle to wakefulness with the sound of the Today...
[November 1, 1997, 7:00]
DWP predicts boost in annual IT budget
News In another FoI response, HM Revenue & Customs said that it spent £787.4m in 2007-08, down 14.3 percent on its £918.4m budget in 2006-07. It spent £1.165bn in 2006-07 and £1.099bn in 2007-08, a 5.7 percent decrease on the previous year, according to...
[August 18, 2008, 10:40]
.XXX porn domain may rise again
News It was publicly known that conservative groups in the United States called on their supporters to ask the Commerce Department to block the new suffix, but the FOI documents reveal how aggressive the lobbying campaign actually was.
[May 22, 2006, 10:50]
Police can't read data on UK's ID cards
News Currently no police stations, border-entry points or job centres have readers for the card's biometric chip, the Identity and Passport Service (IPS) revealed in response to an FoI (Freedom of Information) request by ZDNet UK's sister site, silicon...
[February 5, 2009, 11:30]
MoJ issues digital-preservation code of practice
News The Ministry of Justice is recommending that public bodies do more to preserve digital records, and is extending FoI to more organisations. Wills said the government will also undertake a consultation on extending the Freedom of Information Act to...
[July 20, 2009, 9:39]
Data watchdog steps in over IT project reviews
News A spokesperson commented: "We note the information commissioner's decision on a specific FoI [Freedom of Information] request received in 2006 and we will respond by the deadline required. The Office of Government Commerce (OGC) has been told to...
[June 24, 2009, 10:27]
Accidental Disclosure of Information
Blog The new 'Model Publication Scheme' that is due to be launched by The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) in January 2009 will present another challenge to businesses as they try to convert from supporting 'on demand' FoI Requests for...
[October 6, 2008, 15:46]
FoI to extend to private companies, minister says
Blog Minister of Justice Michael Wills has told ZDNet UK that the UK's Freedom of Information Act is to be extended. Currently requests under the act can only be made to public bodies, but Wills said that the government had been considering modifying it...
[May 13, 2009, 17:07]
FoI
Talkback When I first heard what Blair was going to create in the Freedom of Information Act, I thought my friend was kidding me on. Bravo no2id :-) Then I read it and thought, "Blair really hasn't thought this one through has he?
[February 23, 2009, 15:11]
