Did the UK Freedom of Information Act represent a fundamental shift towards the citizen away from government?
Nigel Gooding LLM, FBCS, FCMI
Chair @DPAS® & @BUCS Mens Super Rugby | Data Protection, Cyber, Technology & Information Rights Law | Academic | NED | AI & Data Strategy | Author | PhD Research student, Business & Sustainability
Did the implementation of the UK Freedom of Information Act 2000 represent a fundamental shift in the balance of power between the state and the citizen?
An analysis of the UK Freedom of Information Act 2000 in which the aims of the Act, to shift transparency in public sector decision making was achieved. The report identifies the political motives of the legislation and uses the four tests developed by Peled, Roy, and Rabin, Yoram in The Constitutional Right to Information, Columbia Human Rights Law Review to answer the report question.
In this paper, they progressed the argument that this is a constitutional right, due to its political nature and its role in the protection of democracy. To support that proposition, they proposed four “theoretical” justifications by which to judge the necessity of legislation to meet the requirements of real constitutional effect. These being:
The report uses these four tests to analyse the report question. The report concludes that the FOIA did represent a fundamental shift to the public.
Analyst, improvement-activist, data-protection and governance wonk, mentor and student.
3yYou may well be right, Nigel, but, judging by the obfuscation and evasion typically shown by Ministers in government towards voters, the principles of open and transparent democracy, and indeed Parliament itself, the balance might have moved but the power hasn’t.