Denis Naughten
Question:23 Mr. Naughten asked the Minister for Health and Children the plans he has to review procedures regarding the Freedom of Information Act, 1997. [21866/01]
Written Answers. - Proposed Legislation.
The Information Commissioner published a report entitled Freedom of Information – Compliance by Public Bodies in July 2001, which made recommendations on a range of issues for consideration by public bodies. The commissioner also made a number of specific recommendations in relation to freedom of information – FOI – procedures within the Department of Health and Children. My Department is taking action to address these issues.
The Information Commissioner's specific concerns as regards my Department were in relation to the failure to meet the deadlines as set down in the Act, the level of training provided for decision makers and internal review officers, and the independence of internal review procedures. He also recommended changes in the manner in which the Department advised people of their rights of appeal under the Act.
The freedom of information unit in the Department has developed new procedures to address the issue of timeliness and to strengthen existing quality control measures. Requesters' rights of review under the Act are now set out within the decision letter and a standard notice of these is also enclosed with each acknowledgement.
A phased programme of training is already under way and will address the concerns of decision-makers arising from their work on actual requests.
The Information Commissioner advised Departments to concentrate its FOI expertise and to consider the use of a panel of senior staff to conduct internal reviews. My Department is setting up an internal review board – to be chaired by an assistant secretary. This will address the commissioner's concern about the independence of the internal review where that is carried out by the decision maker's supervisor. The Department is also considering concentrating decision making to a smaller number of staff in order to maintain the necessary expertise.
Additional resources have been assigned to the freedom of information unit which will play an active role in processing requests and in supporting the new review panel.
The commissioner referred in his report to the need for each public body to have a records management policy. In this regard, records management consultants have completed a pilot study of two areas of the Department and their recommendations are under consideration.
The Department is also addressing the more general recommendations contained in the report and, specifically, the identification of material of general public interest which may be published routinely outside the Act.
While the new procedures are already taking effect, there is a substantial backlog of overdue requests and in particular of internal reviews. It is my intention to have this backlog dealt with as quickly as possible. The measures which are being taken will bring about significant improvements in this regard.