We responded to @ICOnews consultation on prioritising #FOI complaints. We welcome the objective of prioritising complaints of significant public interest & target of prioritising 10-15% of all complaints, while improving the speed with which non-prioritised cases are dealt with. If these ambitious targets are achieved they will – together with the ICO's proposed action to address public authority delays – reinvigorate the #FOI system.

📢 We are urging peers to amend the National Security Bill whose Lords 2nd reading is today. It creates wide offences for people who use ‘restricted’ info to prejudice key govt policies if they have been funded by any non-UK government.

#FOI #NationalSecurity #officialsecrets Civil society orgs with grants from friendly govts for work on environment, human rights, press freedom, asylum, aid etc may commit an offence by using such info to block govt policies. Journalists working for non-UK state broadcasters may also be at risk.

📢Social housing providers would be covered by #FOI under a proposed amendment to the #SocialHousing (Regulation) Bill whose Commons committee stage starts today. The Campaign supports proposed New Clause 9 tabled by Shadow Housing minister @mtpennycook & drafted by @gmlawcentre The Bill proposes a new and limited ‘access to information scheme’ for social housing tenants. The Campaign believes the more obvious and effective solution would be to bring social housing providers under the Freedom of Information Act.

Excellent news @ICOnews has listened to the Campaign and others in the FOI community and is "committing to delivering more systemic enforcement action against public authorities that clearly and consistently fail to meet their #FOI obligations.

https://twitter.com/ICOnews/status/1547214545235705856

We have also called for greater transparency about the ICO's #FOI casework, so welcome the commitment to publishing "quarterly updates on our FOI casework so people can see how we are performing as a regulator and how long they can expect to have their cases resolved".

📢 MPs debate the #NationalSecurity Bill today. @CampaignFoI & @a19right2info have serious concerns about the implications of the Bill for journalists and those working for civil society organisations who receive some funding from foreign governments.
#FOI #officialsecrets The publication of leaked information which prejudices the UK’s interests would be an offence with a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. The identical act by someone without foreign government funding might not be an offence at all.

New: @ICOnews Freedom of Information backlog remains high. On 25.4.22:
🔴 there were 2,272 active #FOI cases
🔴 the oldest dates from 6.3.20 (It involves the Cabinet Office and exemption for security bodies)
🔴 45% are over 6 months old
🔴 20% are over 9 m
🔴 7% are over 12 m The ICO’s Director of #FOI and Transparency said in May 2022 that the caseload was still over 1,000 cases greater than it was before the Covid outbreak. The new figures illustrate the difficulty the ICO faces in reducing its backlog.
ico.org.uk/about-the-ico/…

The @ICOnews has disclosed a briefing document prepared for new Commissioner @JCE_IC on developing its #FOI strategy. whatdotheyknow.com/request/822108… It refers to longstanding criticisms @CampaignFOI has made of @ICOnews over the extent to which it uses its enforcement powers under #FOI and a lack of focus on its FOI work compared to data protection.

The Advanced Research and Invention Agency Bill has its 2nd reading in @UKHouseofLords today.

We are calling for peers to reverse ARIA's exemption from Freedom of Information.

cfoi.org.uk/2021/11/lords-…

#FOI #ARIA #opengovuk The idea that complying with #FOI would be an obstacle to the UK becoming or remaining a ‘science superpower’ is utterly implausible. The obstacles to innovation by funding bodies have been discussed at length and do not include FOI.

The FOI Act is a vital tool for journalists and campaigners. Here is a thread of some of the things we’ve recently learnt through #FOI requests 👇

If you want to protect your right to know, please consider supporting our urgent funding campaign crowdfunder.co.uk/fight-secrecy A report from a 2016 pandemic preparation exercise warned Government of the need to stockpile PPE and set up a contact tracing system.

Request by @DrMQureshi covered by @Robert_Booth @guardian.

theguardian.com/politics/2021/…

🚨Our evidence to the @CommonsPACAC Greensill inquiry calls for the #FOI Act to be strengthened:

📝cfoi.org.uk/2021/06/campai… It says without #FOI the extent of the company’s efforts to persuade the government to provide it with financial support, and the extraordinarily insistent lobbying by the former prime minister David Cameron may not have been uncovered, let alone documented in such detail.

Before the pandemic, @ICOnews had been moving towards issuing enforcement notices against public authorities repeatedly breaching #FOI time limits. 1/11 In November 2019 an #FOI enforcement notice was drafted against an authority in the police & justice sector which had 900 outstanding requests 3 months earlier. Because of significant improvements it was not issued. 2/11