Freedom of Information
The Law, the Practice and the Ideal

This detailed discussion of FOI laws and personal data laws examines the historical development and their modern context.

Patrick Birkinshaw (Author)

9780521716086, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 1 April 2010

578 pages
24.7 x 17.4 x 2.8 cm, 1.13 kg

Enacted in 2000 and in operation in the UK since 2005, the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act has revealed information which has generated calls for constitutional reform. A massive 'information jurisprudence' has developed through the decisions of the Information Commissioner, the Information Tribunal and the courts. Governments' responses to the war on terror have involved increased resort to claims of national security and accompanying secrecy, but these developments have to exist alongside demands for FOI and transparency. FOI has to balance access to and protection of personal information, and major amendments have been made to the Data Protection Act in order to balance the competing demands of transparency and privacy. This detailed discussion of FOI laws and personal data laws examines the historical development of secrecy, national security and government, and their modern context.

1. Persistent themes and novel problems
2. National security
3. Government and information
4. The Freedom of Information Act 2000
5. The exemptions
6. Decision notices and appeals
7. The environmental information regulations
8. Privacy, access and data protection
9. Claims and counter claims
10. Secrecy and access in the European Union
11. Openness, information and the courts
12. Freedom of information: overseas experience
13. Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Constitutional & administrative law [LND]