Archive for November, 2004

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Records being shredded before Information Act

Monday, November 29th, 2004

I worked with the Daily Telegraph on a series of articles examining whether government officials were shredding record numbers of documents in an imprudent attempt to get their records systems in order prior to full implementation of the Freedom of Information Act. I will shortly post all the figures and governmental communications I received that form the basis of these stories.

I was particularly interested in the way different departments answered my requests and the information they could provide. It became clear that some departments had few facts at hand to measure records destruction which is disturbing in itself. There is a great need for more checks and balances on the system of government records disposal and it is to be hoped that new electronic records management systems will create a clearer and more auditable system.

Main article (page 1)
By Ben Fenton and Heather Brooke
(Filed: 29/11/2004)

Government departments have been shredding record numbers of official files in the months leading up to the implementation of the Freedom of Information Act.

(more…)

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Posted in Articles, Freedom of Information, Politics | No Comments »

A way through the smokescreen

Saturday, November 27th, 2004

The Guardian
Thursday November 25, 2004

Large government IT projects are likely to feel the heat once the Freedom of Information Act comes into force next month. Michael Cross looks at the battle against secrecy
See the full article here.

This article addresses the government’s ongoing love-affair with secrecy and how in the area of IT

Heather Brooke, author of Your Right to Know, a new guide to extracting information from government, says the NHS can expect a rough ride. Apart from the Freedom of Information Act, citizens will also be armed with the new Environmental Information Regulations, which come into force at the same time. These regulations, designed to uncover the extent of environmental pollution, allow fewer exemptions than the Freedom of Information Act.

Anyone interested in better government should welcome the change, says Brooke. “The whole idea that secrecy leads to a candid flow of ideas has been proven to be untrue. It’s madness.”

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Transport for London complaint

Friday, November 26th, 2004

My complaint to the Information Commissioner resulted in an article in today’s Guardian by Hugh Muir: Secrecy rebuke over contracts for tube.

See the full article here.

The complaint involved TfL’s failure to make public its controversial public-private partnership contracts and funding formula for the Tube, which it had committed to doing so by January 2004 in its legally binding Publication Scheme.

While it is admirable that TfL agreed to publish these contracts (many public authorities are still refusing to do so) the fact remains that a commitment to openness is not the same as actual openness. The public faces the ultimate burden of funding this controversial way of running London’s tube and we have a right to know how our money is being spent.

I first asked for these contracts last spring. My requests were ignored for several months. Finally, the Freedom of Information Officer wrote back apologising for the delay. “It’s been partly caused by ill health and a handover to a new FOI Publication Scheme Coordinator,” he said. He couldn’t give me the contracts, but helpfully informed me that, “This issue has been escalated within General Counsel for resolution.” I’ve no idea what this means but it certainly doesn’t mean quick action. By July, I still hadn’t received an answer.

I then filed a complaint with the Information Commissioner who is the watchdog for the Freedom of Information Act, Data Protection and soon the new Environmental Information Regulations. It took four months, several chasing emails and telephone calls before I received the result of their investigation on 5 November.

Frankly this is unacceptable. If this is the kind of time-period on offer when there are almost no cases, what can we expect after 1 January 2005 when the Information Commissioner begins receiving the suspected “onslaught” of cases?

I asked Information Commissioner Richard Thomas about this delay on Thursday at a Parliamentary meeting and he told me he was surprised at the length of time the investigation took and would look into it.

Meanwhile, Transport for London is now quite helpful, and I am scheduled to look through the contracts next week. I will post the results here.

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Posted in Freedom of Information | 1 Comment »

Computer Weekly campaigns for openness in Govt IT projects

Tuesday, November 23rd, 2004

Computer Weekly magazine has launched a campaign urging greater openness and transparency in the development and management of government IT projects as a means of ending the litany of multi-million pound disasters.

Transparency is not a dirty word

View full article here.

At a hearing of the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee, MPs from the three main parties gave their support to Computer Weekly’s Shaking Up Government IT campaign which aims to improve transparency and accountability on complex high-risk projects…

The ID card scheme and the NHS’s national IT programme are two examples that greatly concern this publication.

Computer Weekly has undertaken its duty to report IT disasters with the principal aim of seeing the lessons of past mistakes being avoided in future projects. It has been a profoundly frustrating experience to have chronicled so many failures where the same mistakes have been repeated, but no one has acknowledged responsibility.

Transparency and accountability are not dirty words. They should not be treated as factors that could intimidate civil servants into not expressing their concerns freely. So it is gratifying that Computer Weekly’s work has been cited in several parliamentary events in the past month: during a Commons debate on NHS IT and at the hearings of two select committees.

But such recognition of the principles Computer Weekly has espoused will prove pointless if they are not accepted as policy and implemented. Parliament has recognised the need for reliable information on high-risk projects from the departments. Indeed, MPs are demanding it as a matter of urgency. Whether they get it is up to government, which must show a genuine commitment to ending the shameful history of IT disasters.

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Open up parking systems

Tuesday, November 23rd, 2004

The number of parking tickets issued by money-grabbing councils continues to rocket according to a report released yesterday by the National Parking Adjudication Service. The report states that 2.45 million tickets were issued in 2003, up 300,000 from 2.13 million in 2002.

An article in today’s Times quotes Caroline Sheppard, chief adjudicator for England and Wales saying that councils must be more open with their parking ticket policy. I echo this sentiment and urge everyone to utilise the Freedom of Information Act to force local councils to make public their parking enforcement contracts, policies and financial arrangements.

“There is an urgent need for more transparency and accountability in the councilsÂ’ activities and it would be more informative for the public to have the whole picture,” she said.

“We believe the Government should require this information to be published each year, along with the councilsÂ’ parking accounts,” Ms Sheppard added. The data should include the number of penalty charges issued each year, the number paid at reduced penalty, the number of notices to owner issued, the number of representations received and accepted, the number of appeals lodged and the outcome of appeals and referrals to county courts.

View the full article here. It also includes a chart of the top 20 councils (excluding London) issuing the most parking tickets.

Indeed if councils are to make claims they represent their local community then it is essential that parking enforcement systems are fully transparent so we can see if they are operating in the public’s interest or, as seems the case now, against it.

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Posted in Politics | 6 Comments »

Drug firm 'kept quiet about lethal side-effect'

Tuesday, November 23rd, 2004

A report in the Journal of the American Medical Association by Dr Bruce Psaty says that a heart drug believed to be responsible for nearly 100 deaths was not withdrawn from the market sooner because data showing the drug’s fatal side-effects was kept secret

The full article in JAMA can be viewed here.

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Police and CPS should put us in the picture

Tuesday, November 23rd, 2004

An interesting article in today’s Times, Law Section written by John Battle, ITN head of compliance. He argues that the public have a right to see film footage and other images shown in open court.

The article examines the Crown Prosecution Service’s ill-informed decision to ban disclosure of all footage related to criminal trials, even that shown to a jury.

‘The ban would have done little to promote understanding of, or confidence in, the work of the police, the CPS and the judiciary.

But then the CPS announced a “clarification”. From now on the prosecution would “usually” disclose custody photographs of defendants, videotapes of police reconstructions, sections of interview transcripts read out in court, police maps and diagrams and videos of crime scenes or of property seized, such as drugs and stolen goods. A separate category of material that “may be released” comprised closed-circuit television footage of defendants viewed by the jury, videos of police interviews with defendants and victimsÂ’ statements.’

It also presents the case for disclosure of evidence under Article 10 of the Human Rights Act.

‘Last month the House of Lords underlined the importance of Article 10 in the context of court reporting and backed the primacy of open justice against privacy rights in a criminal trial. Lord Steyn said: “A criminal trial is a public event . . . Full contemporaneous reporting of criminal trials in progress promotes public confidence in the administration of justice. It promotes the values of the rule of law.”

The ban also seemed to clash with the spirit of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, shortly to come into force. In this new dawn, the public were promised more information, not less.’

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Drug sales reps discussed on You & Yours

Monday, November 22nd, 2004

Today’s You & Yours on BBC Radio 4 featured an enlightening discussion on the way drugs companies wine and dine doctors with the purpose of influencing what drugs they perscribe. Greater transparency of the way drugs are chosen and approved is an issue I campaign for in Your Right to Know. The Health Select Committee is currently conducting an inquiry and the Scottish Executive may soon force all doctors to declare commercial links.

You can listen to the Your & Yours report at:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/youandyours/index_20041122.shtml

Dr Des Spence, spokesperson for No Free Lunch, said that the voluntary code of practice governing GPs’ acceptance of hospitality from drug sales reps is vague and not enforced. He has also written an article about the shadowy relationship between doctors and drugs reps for The Ecologist. Some figures say there is one drug rep for every doctor in the UK.

Medical Director Dr Richard Tiner, Tom Walley from Liverpool University and GP Dr Una Coales also contribute to this discussion on whether visits from drug reps really do influence the prescribing habits of doctors.

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Tell us about the mould and rats

Monday, November 22nd, 2004

New Statesman: Observations
Monday 22nd November 2004

Observations on food by Heather Brooke

As a curry often follows a night on the beers, so a dodgy tummy often follows the next morning. Nobody knows precisely how many people suffer from food poisoning in Britain or which restaurants, takeaways and shops are the likely culprits; a secretive inspection regime leaves the public in complete ignorance about the quality of the places where they eat and shop.
(more…)

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New timetable for EIRs

Friday, November 19th, 2004

The new Environmental Information Regulations have been laid in Parliament and will be debated on 9th December 2004.

Hester Tidcombe from DEFRA’s Sustainable Development Unit says they are still expecting the law to be fully implemented on 1 January 2005 along with FOI.

Consultation on a draft Code of Practice to accompany the updated EIRs closed on 4 November 2004.

N.B. Consultation on the draft guidance is continuing until 31 December 2004 for Chapters 1-6 and 12 February 2005 for the remainder. The draft guidance consultation is at http://www.defra.gov.uk/corporate/consult/eir-guidance/index.htm

The final chapter of the guidance on refusals is available here. (Thanks to Steve Wood for this)

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