back to article Government backs down on controversial FOI fees change

The UK Government has dropped controversial proposals that critics said would have neutered the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act. Changes to the charging structure that would have allowed bodies to refuse more requests will not now go ahead. The move comes amid significant opposition from pressure groups and media companies, …

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  1. Ferry Boat

    This Helpsheet is for you to use and keep

    I wonder about this FOI stuff really. Why don't they just publish everything? Then there is no messing about. We should be able to see how much things cost, how decisions are reached and how much they spend on beer.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    when FOI was introduced

    allegedly ALL uk governmint/whatever offices shredded/composted EVERYTHING the day before the FOI act came into force. Anything meaningful that is still available is deeply regretted and will not happen again....

  3. amanfromMars Silver badge
    Gates Halo

    Through the Looking Glass, Darkly.

    It should surely tell everyone, everything that they need to know, about their caring sharing Government, that they thought to make the proposal in the first place. ie they aren't a bit interested in letting you know what they are doing ...and you can draw your own conclusions from that.

    You don't need to be an Einstein to draw the right ones.

    But it is endemic throughout all Systems.....hence the continuing Meltdown into deeper and deeper Conflicts and Sub-Prime defaults.

    Do you think It is rapidly, as in exponentially speeding up, moving towards a You are either with Us the People against them the Executive scenario with major heads of corporations, too, being catapulted into the firing line rather than ignorant cannon fodder being sacrificed?

    It must surely be something which Big Business is bound to be worrying about and given the fact that they have all the money in the World to Fix IT, it must surely have us pondering the absence of any visible effort to Enable the Fixers.

    And that must be about a Dumb as it gets.... to be creating their own rapid demise. Although what the betting that they can prove that wrong. :-) rather than proving it right.

    dDevelopers, dDevelopers, dDevelopers, dDevelopers, Bill? Or have you not stop digging the hole yet?

  4. The Other Steve
    Thumb Up

    Ministry of Justice ?

    I just can't get used to seeing that in print (so to speak). It's just so frighteningly Orwellian.

    W/R/T the actual story, if FOI requests are expensive, boo hoo. My heart bleeds.

    Four remedies :

    1) Stop being so damn secretive in the first place, if the info was routinely made readily available it wouldn't cost so much to track down.

    2) Keep proper records, see above.

    3) Sort your bloody admin processes out so that they actually work efficiently, massive cost savings all around. Handy hint for public orgs, stop hiring monkeys to be 'administrators' and get some properly trained employees. They'll cost more, sure, but they'll be more efficient, q.v previous. The three GCSE crowd will end up back on the dole, sure, temporarily inflating unemployment figures, but then they'll all get snapped up by Mickey D's and GAP which is where they belong in the first place.

    4) Tax me more. If a proper, functioning, accountable democracy is more expensive than what we've got now, then so be it. But be damn sure you try the first three proposals first.

    A heavily qualified, but hearty "yay" for the consultation result though.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    Allegedly...

    ...so people say ...who are these people? Does anybody ever speak to them? How does one find them?

    I'm as cynical as the next Terry Pratchett fan, but as it happens I also work in government; within my organisation, when FOI was coming in, we were all informed that anybody who even TRIED to bury / shred / delete potentially embarassing files before the act became law could expect to be prosecuted. The message was that if there was anything we'd rather stayed hidden, then that was tough ... we had to 'fess up and deal with any messes as they came to light.

    We did have a bloody good sort out and bin loads of pointless and boring unnecessary paper files, magazines and random articles of lost property though! For a couple of weeks I could actually see the path from my desk to the door...

  6. Luther Blissett

    Siren voice of the Beehive

    You are all drones now. You serve the Beehive. You cannot survive without the Beehive - without its protection your life will be futile, meaningless, and demise will come early and prematurely. The Beehive is Life. You know that even as you don't understand that. The Beehive will live survive you. It must survive. The Beehive MUST survive. Go now bee... in peace. This is your fate: to make the money honey and then die. Like blossom on the wind. Like snow on the water.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @amanfrommars

    We may have an imposter masquerading as amanfrommars.

    Either that or his shift key has worn away.

    A post i can both read and understand.

  8. John Latham

    Title

    When I was receiving FOI training at the Cabinet Office, I suggested that we make all our mailboxes and network shares publicly accessible on the web (suitably anonymized and excluding HR info), to avoid the effort of dealing with FOI requests.

    They looked at me like I was clinically insane.

    John

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Mars

    Re: Through the Looking Glass, Darkly.

    "And that must be about a Dumb as it gets.... "

    Don't sell yoUrself short - i'M sure you can go further. There is a noticaBle inverse relAtionship between the coherence of your wordS and the frequency of your capitaliSation

  10. amanfromMars Silver badge

    Spin recycled ......is still anything and everything but the truth.

    "We did have a bloody good sort out and bin loads of pointless and boring unnecessary paper files, magazines and random articles of lost property though!"

    Apparently they are being recycled ...... http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=489795&in_page_id=1770

  11. amanfromMars Silver badge

    The Blair Years to blame ......such a crying shame..

    "A post i can both read and understand."....

    Good for you, AC, you must be learning...... which is a lot kinder than thinking that things have been dumbed down especially for you to understand.

    Oh, and thanks for childish insult @Re: Through the Looking Glass, Darkly. Totally unnecessary Spin, doctor.

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