INTERVIEW
Access to information: mind the gaps
With plans in the offi ng to update and extend the reach of our information rights, Gill Bull, Director of Freedom of Information Com- plaints and Compliance at the Information Commissioner’s Offi ce, talks to Rob Mackinlay about how she’s also making sure the current laws are properly and uniformly implemented.
EARLIER this year the Information Commissioner’s Offi ce published its “case for reforming access to infor- mation law” in which the Information Commissioner, Elizabeth Denham, said the current law was “no longer fi t for purpose”. The report was called Outsourcing Oversight because it focused on concerns about the lack of access to information about private companies working for public organ- isations. These concerns had been raised in 2016 by the Independent Commission on Freedom of Informa- tion Report and were amplifi ed by the tragic events at Grenfell Tower and the collapse of Carillion.
But while the law needs to change, the ICO continues its day job. Gill Bull is Director of FOI Complaints and Compli- ance at the Information Commissioner’s Offi ce (ICO). She leads a team of around 55 information rights professionals who ensure public authorities give people access to the information that they have a legal right to. And while she is keen for the law’s reach to extend and give the public the access they have a right to, she is also addressing the problems that prevent the existing legal framework from achieving its potential. .
Big picture
The gap between the world now and the world when information rights were created
18 INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL
Rob Mackinlay (@cilip_reporter2,
rob.mackinlay@
cilip.org.uk) is Journalist, Information Professional.
is growing: the old laws remain unchanged while the information world changes at speed. Gill says this is a pitfall of being an early adopter: “Sweden was fi rst [to enshrine the public right to access information] and UK laws are in the second tranche. It’s an inevita- bility of the way public services are provided, and how public expectations change – it means that legislation becomes out of date and that’s the case that we make in Outsourc- ing Oversight. Once our legislation was at the forefront but, in some ways we are now lagging behind.”
October-November 2019
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