Labour is considering lowering the cost ceiling for processing Freedom of Information (FoI) requests, using ‘spiralling administrative costs’ as the latest excuse to limit government transparency. Obviously blaming China wasn’t good enough…
According to briefings in the FT:
“The soaring number of requests comes against a backdrop of heavily constrained Whitehall budgets… the cost threshold for complying with a request is set at £600 for central government and £450 for other public bodies, with staff time charged at a flat rate of £25 an hour. This equates to 24 hours of work, or 3.5 working days, for Whitehall departments and 18 hours of work for other government agencies.”
Lowering the cost ceiling would effectively let departments turn down what they claim would be more complex or time-consuming requests without having to find a specific exemption. In reality, it would inevitably be a useful way to bury inconvenient and embarrassing material from the public. This is a government which makes the hilarious claim it has “strengthened many transparency and disclosure standards“. Total nonsense…
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