Your Right to Know: How to Use the Freedom of Information Act and Other Access Laws
Your Right to Know: How to Use the Freedom of Information Act and Other Access Laws
Heather BrookePluto PressLondon2005ISBN 07453 2272 7£12.99Keywords Freedom or information, Legislation,United KingdomReview DOI 10.1108/09565690510614274
The title of this publication reveals not only its objectives but also its intended audience. The author has worked as a newspaper and crime reporter in the USA and has been involved in investigations of malpractices in public organisations, which resulted in changes to state law. She brings her campaigning verve to this book focusing on the exposure of secretive public authorities.
Drawing on her first-hand experience of the American model where citizens are more aware and better equipped to exercise their rights, the author aims to provide tools to:
get access to public information now available in the UK since the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) 2000 came fully into force on 1 January 2005; and
exploit other UK access laws.
The intended audience is the individual citizen but also political activists, members of pressure groups, researchers, lawyers and journalists.
In addition to the introduction and conclusion, the book is divided into 12 chapters, each dealing with a category of information that might be of interest to the individual. For example, the first chapter is devoted to laws of access and explores in detail the Freedom of Information Act. Other chapters cover central government, the environment, health and private companies. In each case there is an investigation of who is responsible, how to get information together with practical guidance, in the form of contact details, of where to send requests for information. In the appendix there are sample letter templates for submitting a freedom of information request or a request for personal records.
The book is not only easy to read but also succeeds in explaining very clearly and authoritatively a range of complex legislation and regulations. The use of blocks of shaded texts to summarise key points, such as the “good and bad of our FOIA”, the process for finding police information and“what is a health record” are very helpful and add to the book’s value as a reference tool, which could have been further enhanced by providing a list of the summary blocks. The index is quite detailed but I was disappointed to see no entries under the term “records”. Closer scrutiny revealed references to different types of records, for example medical records, court records, student records and a listing of record (sic) management under information management. The reference to “record management” leads to a short, simplistic and distinctly journalistic description of records management practice in public organisations. It does, however, refer to and reference the Lord Chancellor’s Code of Practice on the Management of Records (available at: www.dca.gov.uk/foi/codemanrec.htm)but regrettably neither includes Lord Chancellor or the code of practice in the index.
Overall, the book is a valuable source of information and I would recommend it as important reading for information and records managers, practising and aspiring, across the sectors. Its price makes it accessible to most pockets and the author is to be commended on book updates available at www.yrtk.org. My only reservation is that on a small number of occasions the over simplification, as a result of her campaigning zeal, detracts from the authority and validity of the text.
Catherine HareCommunity of Science Inc., Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
