Preparing For Freedom!

Originally published in June 2003

Three-quarters of government departments have not yet budgeted for the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) and almost one in three departments did not know the deadlines for the Act,
according to a recent survey by The Stationery Office.

FOIA introduces new rights of access to a wide range of information held by Local Authorities, along with other public bodies. It imposes two main obligations – the requirement to produce a "publication scheme", which has been in force since 28 February this year and to respond to requests for information which comes into force from 1 January 2005.

A publication scheme is effectively a catalogue of all of the information published by a public authority. Local Authorities should ensure that their schemes set out the classes of information which they publish or intends to publish, its format as well as details of whether the information is freely available or subject to a charge. Publication schemes must be