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http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,3 ... 78,00.html

Freedom Of Frivolous Info
Updated: 06:54, Saturday December 31, 2005

The Government is considering tightening the scope of the Freedom of Information Act to prevent what it terms "frivolous" inquiries.

The Lord Chancellor Lord Falconer said the law is working well - but some requests are wasting civil servants' time.

He cited as an example one query about the amount of money Government departments spent on toilet paper.

Lord Falconer said that in its first year of operation the Act had brought about real change, "cracking open the culture of secrecy in Whitehall".

But he said a minority of requests for information, coming mostly from the media, was designed to feed the "wilder fevers of journalistic wish-lists".

He said that, as well as the toilet paper query, irresponsible uses of the Act had included a request for details of the number of windows in a Government department.

In an article for The Guardian, Lord Falconer wrote: "The vast majority of requests under the FoI Act have been for key information about issues.

"Inevitably, a small minority have not been so responsible. So we are looking now at the operation of the Act to ensure that its central purpose is being honoured."

Lord Falconer said that, in the nine months after the Act's provisions came into effect on January 1 last year, some 16,000 pieces of information had been handed out.

All we need now is to understand just what is "frivolous" in the eyes of the Government. The answer is, probably, almost anything they don't want to come out thus circumventing the purpose of FOI.

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Malcolm W.
The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not represent the views of Safespeed.

I think the request about the amount of toilet paper is very relevant, because most of the sh/t seems to be being thown out of the windows onto the voting public, so why do they need so much toilet paper?

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Semper in excreta, nur quantitat variat.

If only a small minority of requests are of a 'frivolious' nature, then what the hell is the problem? The waste of time caused by these is probably insignificant.

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Only when ideology, prejudice and dogma are set aside does the truth emerge - Kepler

It’s just another excuse for them to pick and choose what information they want to give out. Just as the Terrorism Act was introduce to allow them to pick and choose which people they could silence, nothing to do with Terrorists.

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Useless laws weaken necessary laws.

Must be some good - rumoured the info is gona cost.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0, ... 39,00.html

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lets bring sanity back to speed limits.
Drivers are like donkeys -they respond best to a carrot, not a stick .Road safety experts are like Asses - best kept covered up ,or sat on

If this happens it'll be just another gagging order.

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Useless laws weaken necessary laws.

So in order to combat 'irresponsible' requests they charge for every request?

hmmm

FOI requests coming up

How many irresponsible requests were raised?

Who decided that they were irresponsible?

How does pricing people (the poor) out of the FOI market square with your socialist ideals?

When you shared a flat with Blair........did he snore?