No need to FoI, just ask, says Richmond Council (From Richmond and Twickenham Times)
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No need to FoI, just ask, says Richmond Council
12:23pm Thursday 14th July 2011 in News By Paul Teed
An influx of Freedom of Information (FoI) requests has prompted a council request for people to call their councillors first.
Councillor Geoffrey Samuel, deputy leader of Richmond Council, asked people to try other avenues when they had questions for the local authority.
The council currently spends up to £120,000 a year answering FoI requests.
In the first three months of this year Richmond Council received 250 requests, with questions on a number of topics, including What is the council’s policy on building snowmen?
Comments(5)
lucullus
says...
11:13pm Fri 15 Jul 11
It's hard to understand Cllr Samuel's request, since you can go somewhere like http://www.whatdothe
yknow.com/ to quickly see any request that's made, along with its answer - and the site encourages you to check elsewhere first.
In fact, it's really hard to understand how this even made it to the RTT as a story when we had a road death in the borough yesterday which never even made it to the site ...
Freedomlight
says...
5:21pm Sat 16 Jul 11
They were virtually unheard of in my earlier experience during the late '90s and early '00s. I tried to explain to press officer colleagues that as Government communication professionals it was our duty to respond to any inquiries (a rule of thumb having always been that if the question would need to be answered in Parliament we provide a response) however the new order seemed to be that all those requesting information were resisted as much as possible. This meant that their only recourse was to inquire under FOI.
The media should be campaigning to change this. The public have an absolute right to the information held by Government departments - the only exceptions being certain matters of security. Freedom of Information requests should be a last resort.
PhillipTaylor
says...
8:50pm Sat 16 Jul 11
Phillip Taylor
lucullus
says...
11:52pm Sat 16 Jul 11
e-moment Met, as well!
PhillipTaylor says...
4:21pm Thu 14 Jul 11
The FoI requests have been viewed by some as a cash cow where revenue can be raised by asking the public for money for information which should be freely available from the Council's elected members on request.
Of course, it is not a problem just for Richmond Council which is quite responsible in comparison with other, more secretive local authorities.
I hope that the Localism Act, when it is finally given Royal Assent later this year, will enhance the availability of information which is what most people are concerned about.
Phillip Taylor