Freedom of Information

The Freedom of Information Act (FOI) is a useful tool for journalists. It gives you the chance to ask publicly funded organisations anything you like and they have to tell you the answer within 21 days.

Some examples of newspapers using this law are:

• The Birmingham Post revealing that Birmingham City Council spent almost £750,000 in a year on mobile phone bills for staff and councillors.
• The Kent Messenger's story about Maidstone Council's pest controllers being called to 1,200 rat-infested premises in five years.
• The Kentish Express revealing that Kent County Council had spent £15.9 million upgrading a ring road.

Making an FOI Request

Each public body should have a member of staff designated as a contact point for FOI requests. Find out who this is and then email them the question. It's as simple as that.

Technically speaking, you do not even have to mention that it is an FOI request, but it is best to do this. It is also worth reminding them they are required to answer within 21 days.

In terms of the wording of the question, make sure it is as clear, specific and as unambiguous as possible. If they can find a way of technically answering the question without giving you anything interesting, then they will.

If you want more information, the Channel 4 website has a good section on making an FOI request.

FOI Exemptions

There is some information that is exempt (you should know what the exemptions are) and there are good reasons for them. But they can also be used to stop embarrassing facts becoming public knowledge. If your request is turned down and you think it is unfair, you can appeal to the Information Commissioner. But also remember the fact a public body is turning down an FOI request can sometimes be a story in its own right.

Take the Birmingham Post as an example again. They put an FOI request to Birmingham Council asking how much it spent on taxis and first class rail tickets for its employees, only to be told the paper would have to pay a £9,000 administration fee to find out the information. They probably thought they were being clever, but they were in fact handing them a story on a plate.

Using FOI Sparingly

Before you start deluging your local council with requests, a word of caution on FOI. It does take time to find out the information and this time is being paid for by the taxpayer.

This means if you are putting in lots of requests in the vague hope that one or two pieces of interesting information emerge, then you could be accused of not using the Act responsibly. As well as wasting taxpayers' money, you are unlikely to win any friends at the public body.

On the whole, FOI should be used when press offices do not tell you what you want to know. Often, journalists put in requests to the FOI officer before they go to the press office.

This is likely to get people’s backs up. And besides, often you are more likely to get the information more quickly from a decent press office than you are from an FOI enquiry, which will generally end up in more people’s inboxes and take more bureaucracy to process.