By Jo Best, 18 October 2004 16:25
NEWS The hugely significant Freedom of Information Act will come into force on 1 January 2005, requiring all government bodies to comply with its terms - but, according to new research, only two in ten will do.
A survey of senior government IT execs by change management consultancy Partners for Change found that 78 per cent of government bodies won't be able to comply with one of the Act's main provisions, which states that government agencies will have to answer any query from the public within 21 days.
Joan Fenelly, consultant at Partners for Change, said that some government bodies have been banking on not being punished even if they do miss the deadline.
Government bodies "are thinking 'the Information Commissioner won't come down too hard as long as we show we're doing something'... however feeble", she said. Fenelly added that she had yet to see many organisations making an effort. "There's large scale non-compliance. Even in the context of being two and a half months away, I don't see much of a flurry of activity."
Should government bodies fail to comply, they could face fines and be taken to court by the public.
Despite the mammoth task of dragging up data on everything from recycling to council tax to planning applications, all within a short time frame - coupled with the potential penalties - many government IT departments don't feel they're being supported by non-technical staff.
The survey found that 60 per cent of the government IT execs felt that those outside of the IT department didn't understand what the act would mean for them and weren't supporting their technical staff in making sure the Act's provisions were met.
With systems old and new, as well as a diverse mix of storage, most of the government bodies feel the biggest problem facing them is changing their business processes rather than updating their hardware - 94 per cent of the execs said working practices were more of a hold up than the IT itself.
Fenelly said: "The responsibility for the Freedom of Information Act is delivered four, five, six levels down the organisation - the individual is often capable in their own right but doesnt have clout in the organisation" to get changes implemented.
While public sector bodies merrily ignore the problem or crack on with compliance, it seems the public is still unaware.
According to research carried out on behalf of the Scottish Information Commissioner, only one in three people know they'll be granted extra rights to information from next year.
Comments
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1. Mark Stanley
A couple of points on an interesting article:
1. Given we are now only 10 working weeks away from FoI coming into effect, realistically there is very little an IT dept can offer that will be helpful.
2. In my experience IT depts can only help when you can describe your needs. With FoI we do not know a)what types of questions we will be asked, and b) how many questions we will be asked each week. So what should we ask for - a universal tell us everything at the click of a button? Why is my IT manager trembling?!
3. Business process is hugely important in this case. You have to coordinate requests, know what information you hold, who holds it, and how to get it when they are on holiday.
2. anonymous
Interesting comment Mark, and quite a negative statement for a "Consultant" to make. There is a solution actually. IT departments can work with their existing suppliers to help provide the necessary infrastructure to protect themselves against a deluge of information requests, and it does not have to be expensive. To date there is only one company who have been able to provide a robust and inexpensive solution to the potential threat of FOI - which incidentally is more of a catalyst to an even bigger threat of civil litigation, brought about by accidental breaches of the Data Protection Act. Weaknesses in case handling methodologies will precipitate this. Talk to Touchpaper, a UK based software house, they have the only working, UK centric product on the market.
3. Martin Lawrence
Authorites are unaware that it will only take 1 complicated FOI request to cause significant pain in and organisation and a missed deadline. Forget what the Info Commissioner will say what about the courts? What will the CEO do when he/she is in court?
4. Austin Powers
...and quite a sales-pitch from a "Software Developer" Mr "I'm too scared to use my name"!! I don't read the 1st comment as negative, more realistic about what can be achieved in 10 weeks. Being able to track requests is not the purpose of FoI - the idea is to answer them, and to do that you need to know where to look.
5. anonymous
An ODPM funded system based on a 14-partner public body demonstrator is now available for uptake by any public body nationally. It focuses on the importance of knowing what information you hold and who holds it, which as this article points out is fundamental to being prepared for FoI (Freedom of Information).
The point is that people do not have to start from scratch, as the projects above have laid a groundwork sponsored by the ODPM.
Going back to the issue of change management and FoI, there is a good article on the LARIA website, written by the Freedom of Information Officer at Devon County Council: http://www.laria.gov.uk/content/features/75/feat14.htm. It describes the issues around organisational buy-in, processes and the deployment IT systems in support of FoI, DPA and EIR. For more information about the ODPM project, contact paribus.com