“Rosalind English has recently posted on incomplete academic work in the climate change field. This appeal is closely related, in that it concerns a university’s claim to hold on to data from a publicly-funded randomised controlled trial pending peer-reviewed publication.”
UK Human Rights Blog, 12th June 2013
Source: www.ukhumanrightsblog.com
“These are the latest in a series of freedom of information requests for disclosure of material from the UEA’s Climatic Research Unit (CRU). These requests arose following the ‘climategate’ affair where hacked university emails suggested that individuals within CRU might have attempted to abuse the process of peer review to prevent publication of opposing research papers and evidence. Hence the sensitivity of the data to both requester and CRU, and the passions engendered on these appeals.”
UK Human Rights Blog, 10th June 2013
Source: www.ukhumanrightsblog.com
“Closed material and closed proceedings are commonplace in FOIA litigation. As regards the disputed information itself, the need is self-explanatory. But what about closed material other than the disputed information, such as evidence in support of a public authority’s reliance on exemptions? To what extent is it appropriate for FOIA proceedings to be determined by reference to such material which the requester is unable to see and challenge? Also, if the public authority’s concern is with public disclosure of such material, is the solution to be found in a readiness to bring the requester’s legal representatives into a ‘confidentiality ring’? In other words, do natural and open justice demand that requesters’ legal representatives be allowed to attend the closed part of the hearing and see the closed material?”
Panopticon, 22nd May 2013
Source: www.panopticonblog.com
“Police in England and Wales have taken DNA samples from children every 10 minutes, figures obtained using freedom of information requests suggest.”
BBC News, 20th May 2013
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
“Employment programmes for welfare recipients – often referred to as ‘workfare’ – are highly controversial. In Department for Work and Pensions v Information Commissioner and Zola (EA/2012/0207,0232 and 0233), the First-tier Tribunal considered three FOIA requests for information about companies participating in such programmes. The Tribunal ordered disclosure, rejecting the Department’s reliance on the exemptions in FOIA section 43(2) (prejudice to commercial interests) and section 36(2)(c) (prejudice to the effect conduct of public affairs).”
Panopticon, 20th May 2013
Source: www.panopticonblog.com
“Public bodies should consider whether freedom of information (FOI) requests are ‘likely to cause a disproportionate or unjustified level of disruption, irritation or distress’ when determining whether those requests are vexatious or not, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has said.”
OUT-LAW.com, 16th May 2013
Source: www.out-law.com
“The Attorney General Dominic Grieve got the law wrong when he overruled judges who ordered the government to publish letters Prince Charles wrote to ministers, a court heard today.”
The Independent, 8th May 2013
Source: www.independent.co.uk
“One of the issues which commonly arises for information law practitioners is the question, which arises under both FOIA and the EIR, of whether a public authority actually holds the information which has been requested. The leading case on section 1(1) FOIA is University of Newcastle v IC & British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection [2011] UKUT 185 (AAC), [2011] 2 Info LR 54 and substantially the same approach has been adopted in, for example, Keiller v IC and University of East Anglia [2012] 1 Info LR 128 and Clyne v IC & London Borough of Lambeth [2012] 2 Info LR 24 in relation to regulation 3(2) EIR. What is required is a common-sense and non-technical approach. That, of course, is easier stated than applied.”
Panopticon, 7th May 2013
Source: www.panopticonblog.com
“Freedom of Information request reveals extent of stun-gun use by police in psychiatric wards.”
The Independent, 7th May 2013
Source: www.independent.co.uk
“In 2009 someone hacked into e-mails belonging to the Climate Research Unit at UEA and leaked them widely. Climate change sceptics whooped with delight because they thought that the e-mails showed attempts to suppress or gerrymander climate data (see e.g. this example from James Delingpole with some of the ticklish e-mails, and for more background, less tendentiously put, my post on an earlier UEA case). And the CRU data was important; it had made its way into the highly influential IPCC reports.”
UK Human Rights Blog, 7th May 2013
Source: www.ukhumanrightsblog.com
“Following the MPs’ expenses scandal, the then newly-founded Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) decided that it would not routinely publish images of the receipts submitted to IPSA by MPs in support of their expenses claims. Rather, only text transcribed from the submitted receipts was to be published.”
Panopticon, 29th April 2013
Source: www.panopticonblog.com
“The Home Office is facing legal action unless it reveals key details of its so-called Snooper’s Charter.”
Daily Telegraph, 20th April 2013
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
“The former City regulator, the Financial Services Authority, was right not to disclose information it held about a company it had investigated based on freedom of information (FOI) legislation carve outs, the Information Commissioner has ruled.”
OUT-LAW.com, 16th April 2013
Source: www.out-law.com
“On 21st March 2013 the House of Commons Justice Committee published a report (HC 962) on the functions, powers and resources of the Information Commissioner. It is essential reading for anyone interested in understanding the current role and future prospects of the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).”
Panopticon, 25th March 2013
Source: www.panopticonblog.com
“Newspapers likely to take action over regulations that will require huge payouts when stories are wrong.”
The Guardian, 19th March 2013
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“The police watchdog has written to a chief constable expressing concern over comments in an email about the Hillsborough disaster that were ‘at best ill-judged and at worst offensive and upsetting’.”
Daily Telegraph, 26th February 2013
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
“Whether a freedom of information (FOI) request is ‘vexatious’ or not will depend on the burden of meeting the request; the motive of requesters; the value or serious purpose of requests, and any harassment or distress caused, an Information Rights Tribunal has said.”
OUT-LAW.com, 13th February 2013
Source: www.out-law.com
“Public authorities often have cause to consider whether to treat requests for information as vexatious (section 14 of FOIA) or manifestly unreasonable (regulation 12(4)(b) of the EIR). Precise definitions of those terms are difficult to pin down. They are not supplied by legislation. There is no binding authority from appellate courts or tribunals on their meaning in the information rights context. The Information Commissioner’s guidance is long-standing, but First-Tier Tribunals vary in the extent to which they use that guidance.”
Panopticon, 7th February 2013
Source: www.panopticonblog.com
“A person’s name constitutes his or her personal data – so has held the Upper Tribunal recently in Information Commissioner v Financial Services Authority & Edem [2012] UKUT 464 (AAC).”
Panopticon, 7th February 2013
Source: www.panopticonblog.com
“In Davis v ICO and Health and Social Care Information Centre (case no. EA/2012/0175, judgment 24 January 2013) the First-Tier Tribunal applied the absolute exemption under section 21 of FOIA 2000 for information which is reasonably accessible to an applicant other than under section 1. The requested information consisted of health statistics which the public authority was willing to provide to the appellant under its publication scheme for a charge of £1,550. The appellant argued that the charge meant the information could not be considered to be reasonably accessible to a person of ordinary means.”
Panopticon, 31st January 2013
Source: www.panopticonblog.com
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