Freedom of Information fees face opposition

Government officials are split on the merits of proposed charges to reduce the number of FOI requests

Secretary of state Lord Falconer reportedly wants to introduce a charging system to deter “vexatious” Freedom of Information (FOI) requests, despite a Constitutional Affairs Select Committee report in June concluding there was "no need to change the fees regulations".

According to a leaked memo obtained by The Sunday Times last week, Lord Falconer is advocating a sliding scale of charges to reflect how long it takes officials to check requested files in order to "inhibit serial requesters", and deter "the most difficult requests".

Currently, public sector bodies can only charge for FOI requests if processing the request would cost more than £600, or £450 in the case of local councils.

Lord Falconer’s proposal may please some public sector bodies that have struggled to respond to requests within the 20 working day time limit – a situation that prompted information commissioner Richard Thomas to warn in June that he would be "considerably tougher" on agencies that do not improve their records-management systems and respond to requests faster.

However, it will anger supporters of the FOI law who argue that fees would undermine the transparency the legislation was supposed to deliver. The recent Select Committee report supported this stance, citing the example of Ireland, where FOI requests declined 75 percent when fees for FOI requests were introduced.

Thomas warned in a report that he was "concerned about the Irish experience, where the fees were increased, and that had [had] a very obvious chilling effect on the uses to which the Act was being put".

A spokesperson for the Department for Constitutional Affairs confirmed a charging scheme was being considered, but insisted there was "no desire to deter FOI requests that are genuinely seeking information, [only] vexatious ones".

IT experts and document management software vendors have long argued that the public sector should increase investment in records management systems to make the processing of FOI requests more efficient, rather than seek to limit the number of requests.

Their calls were endorsed by the recent select committee report, which concluded “more proactive leadership and progress management of departments’ records management systems is required”.

Marina Stedman of IT management specialist Touchpaper said introducing charges may also increase pressure on public sector bodies to introduce audiatble case and process management tools to handle FOI requests.

"There are 100,000 affected agencies, but there have only been 38,000 requests so while they have put in records management systems they have seen less need to introduce process management tools," she explained. "But if you introduce fees you need to be more accountable and they may need more automated process management systems to handle requests."