New Labour's Assaults on the Freedom of Information Act
Ahh, hark back to 1996 when Blair promised us an open government. Sadly, as soon as he got into power, he sacked the writer of the FOI white paper and watered it down. As this Government became the most secretive in history, the FOI only eventually came into power at the start of 2005.
Anyone who has tried to find out their dirty dealings over the Stasi ID database knows they illegally refuse/delay responding to FOI requests anyway. They even set up a department to frustrate FOI requests.
Anyone who has the patience to follow through can appeal to the Information Commissioner. Consequently, 1200 cases were pending in September.
But now, using the excuse of 'parents requesting too much information on schools', Ministers are now apparently considering charging us to further limit us from finding out what they're doing.