Information Retrieval

Having largely emasculated the Freedom of Information Act by allowing itself to refuse information on the grounds of cost, the Government now proposes to cauterise the stump by introducing what the information commissioner calls "new layers of procedural and bureaucratic complexity". The commissioner, Richard Thomas, believes that the present system is working well; worse yet, he considers it "simple, clear and straightforward"; naturally, the Government wishes to introduce reforms. These will enable bureaucrats to "count the cost of time spent reading, considering possible exemptions and consulting" (consulting whom? Saatchi and Saatchi? The White House?) when adding up the cost of information. Officials will also be permitted to aggregate "non-similar" requests within a two-month period, rather than only "similar" requests; in other words, different inquiries by the same person will be treated as though they were a single inquiry and used as an excuse for answering neither.

The reason for all this anti-glasnost, according to the Lord Chancellor, is that "freedom of information is primarily for the public, not the press"; since the public do not gain information from the press, it follows that press inquiries under the Freedom of Information Act are nothing more than a waste of the Government's valuable time. Further, "it is the public's right to know, not the media's role in providing information, that is essential to openness". As long as the public has an official right to know, it does not matter whether information is provided; one might be reminded of Kafka's doorman in the fable "Before the Law", except that it is probably not New Labour policy to take bribes only to prevent the customer thinking he has left something undone.