Freedom of Information Act deadline looms

The Freedom of Information Act was introduced in Nov 2000 and will be implemented by January 2005. Its aims are to provide a better understanding of how public money is spent, how public authorities carry out their duties and how and why they make their decisions.

The Act will mean that it is possible for information held by public authorities to be accessed by people requesting it. This can be done in two ways:

• From January 1st 2005 people will be able to make a written request for any information held by a public authority, who will in turn have to comply with the Act when responding.
• Before this date, every public authority is required to make some information available through a publication scheme. Anyone consulting the publication scheme will have this information made routinely available to them.

In the run up to the Act coming into force, public authorities will be required to put a publication scheme in place which people can request to see. The following dates show deadlines by when each public authority area will have to produce the scheme:

The Freedom of Information Act is intended to support the idea of sharing information and to avoid feelings of negativity about Public Authorities by keeping information secretive. In order to successfully put the Freedom of Information Act into practice, each Public Body will have to:

• Identify a person within the organisation to oversee FOI issues.
• Establish an Implementation Team.
• Manage the information held by the public authority and make it easily accessible when it is requested.
• Create a Publication Scheme to ensure the public is aware of how the information will be available by routine.
• Make sure the Publication Scheme has the approval of the Information Commissioner.
• Ensure staff are trained in matters relating to Freedom of Information.
• Establish an Appeals procedure.
• Take on board a system which can monitor implementation and ensure information is updated regularly to comply with agreed timescales.

This Act can cause problems for certain public authorities, as they will have to find a way to publish all the information which can then be accessed upon request. These publications schemes will inform the public how and when information will be made available and could be provided in a variety of formats such as by email, website or hard copy.
All information requests will have to be responded to within 20 days which means it has to be easily accessible.

Many public authorities will be looking for a solution to the anticipated problems of the Freedom of Information Act. Box UK have developed Amaxus, a high-level XML Content Management System with the ability to drive multiple Intranets, Extranets and Internet websites. It currently delivers hundreds of thousands of documents and objects for organisations ranging from Chubb to the Imperial War Museum. Amaxus enables organisations to make the publication schemes easier to access, as all information contained is divided into classes. These classes provide categories of information (e.g. Human Resources) to help ‘navigate’ the scheme. Thus using Amaxus, information can be stored quickly and effectively, and then accessed easily when it is requested according to the Act.

More information on the Freedom of Information Act can be found on the Information Commissioner website at http://www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk

More information on how the Freedom of Information Act is going to affect the NHS can be found at:
http://www.foi.nhs.uk
http://www.foi-uk.org/about_foi.html