I’ve been doing a little digging on some ‘users’ of the Government’s new FOI User’s Group. It seems our man representing the business user (Anthony Kenny from Intellect UK) is in fact a supplier. Ideally, a small business group should be in this position as they are the primary business user of FOI. Small businesses seek documentation such as tenders, contracts and correspondence to ensure publicly funded deals are awarded on a fair and equal footing with big business. Instead, Intellect represents businesses such as BAE Systems and Thales, the massive weapons manufacturers. I’m sure there’s nothing they’d love more than for the public to demand the ins and outs of all their multi-million pound government contracts. Here’s what BAE gets up to when not campaigning for FOI:

• BAE ordered to name payment agents
• Serious Fraud Office to look into BAE link with Pinochet
• Firms can keep secret agents

Another advocate for openness on Intellect’s board is EDS. There was a story about them in today’s paper:
MPs claim EDS deal will bias award of contracts

In written evidence to the Parliamentary select committee (pp 36-39), Intellect made clear it is against disclosure of contracts between private companies and public authorities. “Suppliers have frequently been asked to accept FOI clauses,” they moan, adding that “a supplier will often have little time to prepare for press coverage that may be generated, and for the potential effect disclosure may have on a company’s reputation and brand image.” Poor diddums!

As I’ve said before – if your nose is in the trough, expect to have your tail tweaked. If public accountability is so awful, there’s an easy solution. Stop taking public money!

So that’s Intellect for you. Anthony Kenny’s bio says he works for Deloitte and chairs Intellect’s Freedom of Information Act Working Group. The group’s aim is to, “provide some practical steps that will enable suppliers to mitigate the risk of their information being disclosed improperly.” It goes on to state: “We are also in discussions with OGC [Office of Government and Commerce] and DCA regarding how the implementation of the Act can be improved to take into account suppliers’ concerns.”

They’ve obviously done a pretty good job as the DCA’s put them on the user group in place of any actual users.

I’ll be running a course at the National Union of Journalists 12 May 2006 from 10am-4.30pm at the NUJ headquarters in London. The course covers all aspects of the Freedom of Information Act and Environmental Information Regulations (EIRs) with particular emphasis on making the laws work for you in practice. I’ll suggest advice on the best way to forumulate requests based on my own, and other journalists’, experience.

The course is tailored for journalists (both local and national) but anyone with an interest in FOI is welcome. There will be a recap on the laws in practice and their enforcement and tips for overcoming the most common reasons for rejection: commercial confidentiality, data protection and policy formation. By the time you finish the course you should have at least two access requests ready to send out.

I hope to see some of you there!

For more information click here
Book online

The members of the Government’s FOI Users Group has only one independent representative of users, according to a document released to me under Freedom of Information.

I filed the request after the government department in charge of the FOI law (the Department for Constitutional Affairs) refused previous requests for the membership or selection procedure. The DCA’s ‘tap on the shoulder’ approach goes directly against stated commitments for more open and accountable government. There is something deeply suspicious about an FOI group whose members are handpicked by the very people the law is designed to monitor.

It also casts a shadow on the members. Firstly, there is only one representative of the public: Maurice Frankel made the list, but one suspects the Government knew that any shreds of credibility the group had would be lost in his exclusion. I also have concern about the press member. There are several national journalists who make great use of the FOI Act. None of these people were asked to join, instead the head of the Westminster press lobby was chosen. Unfortunately lobby journalists are too often dependent on the grace and favour of politicians and unlikely to upset the status quo.

To be chosen in secret for secretive reasons greatly diminishes this group’s legitimacy.

INFORMATION RIGHTS USER GROUP MEMBERSHIP

Chair
Baroness Ashton of Upholland – Parliamentary Under Secretary of State

Police sector
Deputy Chief Constable Ian Readhead – Hampshire Constabulary

MPs and Peers
Peter Bottomley MP – Member of the Constitutional Affairs Select Committee 2003-2005

Health sector
Adrian Pollitt – Head of the Office of Strategic Health Authorities

Local Government
Paul Bettison – Leader, Bracknell Forest Council

National Media
John Hipwood – Chairman of the Press Lobby

Academics
Professor Robert Hazell – UCL Constitution Unit

Information Law
Rosemary Jay – Pinsent Masons

Campaign groups
Maurice Frankel – Campaign for Freedom of Information

Business
Anthony Kenny – Intellect U.K

Enivornmental Information Regulations
Judith Cullen – DEFRA

Information Commissioner (as an observer)
Richard Thomas – Information Commissioner