Introduction

In the UK and everywhere else FOI derives from legislation. If FOI officers want to know what they have to do, and be able to provide advice to colleagues and applicants, they need to understand that legislation. Although there are other places to go for help, some of which are described in Chapter 4, all the codes, guidance, books, decisions of regulators and courts are based on the statute itself.

It is surprising how often a seemingly intransigent problem that an FOI officer has to deal with can be resolved simply by going back to a battered, dog-eared copy of the FOIA, and re-reading what the UK Parliament has set down. Myths build up over what the FOIA does and doesn't require, and going back to the original legislation often helps to establish fact over rumour. Questions as to whether a request is valid, whether information is held, whether it is possible to withhold information – all unlocked at times by simply going back to the source. To be an FOI officer, and to be good at it, it is necessary to read the legislation itself.

Those not used to working with statute may be nervous about reading legislation in its raw state, but the FOIA can be (though isn't always) straightforward to understand. If anything, legislation in other jurisdictions tends to be even clearer.

This chapter looks at the process of creating laws in the UK, how they are structured, and how to access them, before going on to examine the main features of the FOIA. The way that those features are approached in other countries’ FOI laws are highlighted. It is important to recognise that FOI doesn't have to be the way that it is, and that the choices made by legislators have been made for a reason.

Legislation in the UK

The FOIA is an Act of Parliament agreed by the House of Commons, the House of Lords and the monarch, who gave royal assent to the Act on 30 November 2000. Legislation that is still going through the process of reaching agreement by those institutions is referred to as a Bill. Acts are referred to as ‘primary legislation’.