Information is power! FoI laws might help you to get the information your campaign needs.
Since the Freedom of Information Act (2000) (FOIA), you have a right to access information held by public authorities e.g. local authorities and central Government departments. This can be really useful in a campaigner’s armoury!
Separate to FOIA is the ‘Environmental Information Regulations’ (EIR), which are particularly useful for environmental campaigners. These regulations are more powerful than FOIA because there are fewer reasons that you can be denied information!
Having accurate information (especially that held by the bodies you may be campaigning against) is such an important part of campaigning, that it is worth having a good read of the Information Commissioner's Office's website to look at how you can get the information you need.
Bear in mind that your request might be turned down for a range of different reasons:
Under FOIA there are ‘exemptions’, and under EIR there are ‘exceptions’, where you your request for information may be turned down because they fail to meet a ‘public interest test’.
The cost of complying with your request might be too high.
If your request is a ‘repeated or vexatious request’ (Section 14 of FOIA).
In Northern Ireland, the same FOI laws apply as in the rest of the UK and the ICO has a regional office in Belfast responsible for FOI and Environmental Information Regulations locally.
Public sector bodies and NDPBs (non-departmental public bodies) are subject to FOI, but not private sector organisations.
In NI, the FOI also governs Data Protection and the use of your data, which applies to private sector organisations as well. Read the ICO's guide to Data Protection.
For a more detailed but easy to read exploration of these issues visit the site of the Campaign for Better Transport.
Case study
The TaxPayers’ Alliance
The TaxPayers’ Alliance (TPA), who campaign for “lower taxes and better Government”, regularly makes FOI requests. They use these towards large research projects, but also in identifying and highlighting what they see as “one-off instances of waste” in taxpayers’ money.
As part of their campaign to highlight waste, TPA used FOIA to find out that the British Council had spent £50,000 on having a new typeface designed for them.
Read the full, and amusing, campaign story.You will see from the case study that TPA asked very specific questions in their FOI request.
Once they received their reply, they made phone calls to the media and issued press releases. The story was picked up by the Daily Mail and the Sun.
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