6. Freedom of Information Act

As part of the discussion about keeping data confidential we have mentioned the Data Protection Act and the RIPA act.

However there is also legislation in place to NOT keep data confidential. It takes the form of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

This was enacted to give citizens the right to see information held by public authorities.

The Act includes the statement:

Any person making a request for information to a public authority is entitled—
(a)to be informed in writing by the public authority whether it holds information of the description specified in the request, and
(b)if that is the case, to have that information communicated to him.

Newspapers have made extensive use of the FOIA to glean information that they want to write a story about.

There are sensible exemptions from the FOI act that include

• Law enforcement
• Commercial interests
• Health and Safety
• Parliamentary privilege
• Personal information
• Defence

There are a number of others as well.

So our society continues to find the balance between what is public information and what should remain confidential.