EDP’s FOI request on offender data stalls
Posted by
Martin Stabe
on 25 June 2007 at 07:33
Tags: Eastern Daily Press, Freedom of Information
The Eastern Daily Press is having difficulty obtaining documents about the offenders who are removing electronic monitoring tags as Mnistry of Justice stalls on answering its Freedom of Information request. The new Ministry is taking more time to assess the public interest in disclosing the number of offenders who breached their sentences by removing monitoring devices.
The time taken by public authorities in assessing the FOI Act’s public interest test has been a frequent complaint of journalists using the disclosure law. A Liberal Democrat MP’s bill which would have limited the amount of time allowed under such circumstances to 20 extra days recently stalled after being opposed at second reading in the House of Commons.
The EDP story comes as the House of Commons Constitutional Affairs Select Committee called on the Government to scrap its proposal to change the FOI fees regulations, a move that many journalists fear would ‘neuter’ the Act.
