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Independent Commission on Freedom of Information

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Independent Commission on Freedom of Information Independent Commission on Freedom of Information Independent Commission on Freedom of Information: Responses from organisations to Call for Evidence: R – Z Contents The Radio Independents Group (RIG) .................................................................................................... 3 The Renewable Energy Foundation ........................................................................................................ 6 Reprieve ................................................................................................................................................10 Request Initiative ...................................................................................................................................16 The Royal Historical Society..................................................................................................................20 Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust .................................................................................................22 The Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) .............................................................................24 The Royal Statistical Society (RSS) ......................................................................................................28 Russell Group of Universities ................................................................................................................29 Save FOI UK .........................................................................................................................................32 Sense About Science ............................................................................................................................38 Sheffield City Council ............................................................................................................................40 Society of Editors ...................................................................................................................................45 Surrey Downs Clinical Commissioning Group .......................................................................................50 Sheffield City Council ............................................................................................................................52 South Norfolk Council ............................................................................................................................55 South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust ..........................................................................................58 Spend Network ......................................................................................................................................60 Southwark Council ................................................................................................................................64 Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council ...............................................................................................68 Tax Payers’ Alliance ..............................................................................................................................70 Telegraph Media Group (TMG) .............................................................................................................73 Thanet District Council’s ........................................................................................................................84 Tobacco Free Futures ...........................................................................................................................86 Transparency International UK ..............................................................................................................90 The Open Government Network (OGN) ................................................................................................98 UK Sport ..............................................................................................................................................106 UK Statistics Authority .........................................................................................................................108 UNISON ...............................................................................................................................................110 University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust .............................................................................116 Unite ....................................................................................................................................................117 Universities UK ....................................................................................................................................119 Warwickshire Police and West Mercia Police force Alliance. ..............................................................123 Waverley Borough Council ..................................................................................................................125 1 Independent Commission on Freedom of Information Welsh Government ..............................................................................................................................129 West Felton Parish Councillors ...........................................................................................................131 West Lancashire Borough Council ......................................................................................................132 West Somerset Council & Taunton Deane Borough Council ..............................................................135 West Midlands Information Management Group- Joint Response......................................................137 Woodland Trust ...................................................................................................................................144 Updates to this document This document was updated on 16 December 2015 to correct a typographical error in the title of the Tax Payers’ Allicance submission (at page 70). 2 Independent Commission on Freedom of Information The Radio Independents Group (RIG) About RIG The Radio Independents Group (RIG) is the trade body for the independent audio-led production sector in the UK. RIG provides business affairs support, policy representation, and negotiates terms of trade with the BBC. RIG also produces the annual Radio Production Awards1, which uniquely recognise and celebrate the production skills of radio and audio producers across the whole industry. In association with the Department for Business Innovation & Skills and Creative Skillset, RIG has also established RIGtrain2, a £350,000 training programme which is on course to reach more than 800 learners over a period of 18 months between November 2014 and March 2016. Radio producers and FOI RIG’s members are involved in making radio content across all genres, much of which is currently for the BBC’s networks. This includes factual and documentary programmes. Indie documentary makers often have a background in journalism and are themselves frequent users of the Freedom of Information Act to obtain facts and figures which enable them to give the listener a more complete insight into the circumstances around the story they are presenting. How the Freedom of Information works The experience of RIG members is that the overall FoI regime works well. We are not aware of any incidences which have caused a policy to be damaged or have to be revised simply because some detail was made available via freedom of information. Rather the introduction of the FoI Act was made on the sound principle that the policies and operations of public bodies, including public service broadcasters, should as far as reasonably possible, be open to public scrutiny, in order that said policy could be improved upon prior to implementation. The Question of a Veto We are cautious about recommending any extensions to having a veto on disclosure – any executive will have a natural instinct to act in a way they may see as protecting their department and staff, but this is not necessarily in, and may well be in conflict with, the best interests of the public. The costs of FOI We also are not comfortable with the suggestion that councils are being overburdened by FOI, and would point to the fact that if something is in the public domain it might be that important flaws are discovered which could have caused the loss of much greater sums of money had they not been identified and addressed. We also find disingenuous the position quoted in your consultation document, from Kent County Council, which stated that: ‘the resources to deal with these requests have not increased and there is concern that the pressure that FOIA puts on local authorities that are already under budgetary constraints is diverting valuable resources away from arguably more important council services, such as social care, education and highways.’ We would argue that the cost of sourcing the answers to FoI requests are not going to amount to the type of sums needed to make a material difference to the services described, and by logical extension that argument could be applied to any other activity that the council undertakes. The public’s right to know is just that – a right – and we do not feel that it should be curtailed. Public money continues to be spent on other aspects of democracy and in fact we are seeing an increase in terms of more elected local mayors and other such institution. In this context it is important
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