Misusing Freedom of Information Act

I AM sorry but neither British Waterways  nor Canal & River Trust are required by law to give the information being asked for by John Wilkinson. (How much does enforcement cost? Wednesday, 26 September 2012 10:3), writes Maffi.

There is no requirement under the Freedom of Information Act (FOI) for anyone subject to the Act to generate reams of information just because someone asks for it. If that information has to be collected and collated, BW/CRT were/are quite within their rights to refuse.

Laid down figure

If finding out that information costs above a laid down figure then again they are not required to respond to the request other than to tell the requester that the request has been denied. (Even a refusal costs time and money.)

For example, Leicester County Council received a FOI request asking it how much it cost throughout the county to power the Christmas decorations around the county last Christmas. Although the power consumption is written on transformers etc it is not collated into any one document, and so the Council were within their rights to refuse the request on the grounds that a) it didn't exist as a collected piece of information and b) that it would cost over the established financial limit to collect it.

Cost money

FOI requests cost money. Now if CART give in to John and give him the information he requests, what is he going to do with that information. What will owning that information do to benefit the waterways. Will CART stop enforcing moorings/licences etc? No! What owning that information will do is take another £400 out of the already depleted money pot and reduce maintenance.

I would like to propose that all FOI requests be sent to an independent body (I would suggest the Inland Waterways Association, but I doubt it is independent), and all requests be vetted not only for validity but for purpose. (what is the point of the request and what does the requester hope to achieve?), and only those that may in some way benefit the waterways be submitted for action. This should, I hope, ferret out the time wasters and stop nuisance requests.

Inane questions

One nuisance requester we have in this district persistently asks the most inane questions, and is rude with it if they don't give him the answer he wants. And his boat is/was illegally moored on the Thames. In fact it won't fit in the locks to get onto the canal. So what's the canal got to do with him?

If a FOI request asks for information that is published and therefore obtainable by the requester without the interaction of CART then again CART can refuse the request. "I don't have time to look it up," is not a good reason to make the request.

The Freedom of Information Act is a wonderful tool for democracy, but it has to be used responsibly.