Let me record my thanks to and appreciation and admiration for the organisation INQUEST... That organisation, which is based in my constituency, has done amazingly good work over a long period in supporting the families of people who have died in custody. Nothing is popular about such cases, but the organisation has been dogged in pursuing them. I think we should appreciate the value of civil society organisations of that kind which does so much to promote decent standards and liberty, and which help the House to produce better legislation. – Jeremy Corbyn MP
Trying to establish facts and information from large government departments, local authorities or institutions like the police or prisons has always been difficult and often shrouded in secrecy. This is especially true when there has been a sudden death, the circumstances are hard to explain, or specific questions arise on important matters like staffing numbers, healthcare or staff training.
If you have a lawyer representing you during the investigation and inquest process they will be asking for more information from different authorities to get a clearer picture of what happened in your relative or friend’s case. You should check with them what information they have asked for and who they have approached to make sure that you are not working at cross purposes.
Initially it is worth writing to the relevant department, authority or institution asking for the information you want. If that does not provide you with satisfactory answers, you can then apply for information using the Freedom of Information Act.
The Freedom of Information Act came into force in January 2005. It gives the public a right of access to all types of recorded information held by public authorities, but also sets out exemptions from that right. The term ‘public authority’ is defined in the Act and includes all public bodies and Government departments in the UK. It is especially relevant for families who want more information, or greater detail when trying to establish facts, timelines or question the official “version of events”. Families rightly need to know more and the Freedom of Information Act is a useful tool to encourage greater openness and accountability. There are exemptions as we shall see later, but the organisations affected by the Act include:
- Publicly funded organisations
- Government departments
- Local Authorities
- Police and Police Authorities
- National Health Service
- The armed forces
The Act has some basic principles. It:
- encourages organisations to be open and transparent
- applies to all public authorities
- affects everyone in the organisation
- allows anyone, no matter who they are or where they live to make a request for information. There is a duty to comply with requests for information
- is retrospective in nature, meaning you can ask for information from a period of time in the past
- works in conjunction with the Data Protection Act
- 20 working days to respond to request
- specifies exemptions covering information that does not have to be released
- is regulated by the Information Commissioners Office
There are various exemptions to the Freedom of Information Act. These include:
- files held by the Security and Intelligence Service
- information you could get another way, e.g. if your local authority already makes the information available
- privileged parliamentary information, the public are not allowed to know everything about how the government works
- information about someone else if it would breach the Data Protection Laws.
Your request might be refused if:
- you make repeated requests within a short period of time
- you request information about investigations and proceedings conducted by public authorities (worth checking with a lawyer or adviser)
- court records including inquest transcripts – in theory these should be public, but an interested party would have made a request for the transcript and they can be very expensive (again, worth checking with a lawyer or adviser)
- trade secrets
All you need to do is write to the authority that you want information from stating your name, address and details of the information you want. Don’t be too wide in your request as they may come back to you and say that you need to narrow it down to a particular subject. There is no need to mention the Freedom of Information Act but it won’t harm your request if you do. It should cost nothing to get the information but you might be charged postage or copying costs. Some organisations have disclosure logs, where information that has been requested already is made available. If you check with the organisation that you are requesting information from, they often have disclosure log information on their website.
Tips for dealing with the Freedom of Information Act
The Act is complex and if possible you should talk through how you want to use it with someone who has the relevant experience or legal background.
For official advice, provided by the Information Commissioner’s Office contact their website.
The Campaign for Freedom of Information run their site www.cfoi.org.uk to support members of the public understand the act and access information
