Gabrielle Bourke

Research Assistant

Gabrielle Bourke

• Position: Research Assistant
• Room:B01
• Telephone: 0207 679 4979
• Email: g.bourke@ucl.ac.uk

Gabrielle joined the Constitution Unit in August 2009 as a Research Assistant to Dr Ben Worthy. She works on the Unit’s projects relating to Freedom of Information.

FOI and universities is a nine-month project funded by the Leverhulme Trust which looks at the impact of FOI upon academic research and on universities as institutions. It also aims to evaluate the use academics have made of FOI for their own research, and make suggestions for further, more effective use of requests as a research method.

FOI and local government follows on from the Unit’s previous project of FOI and Whitehall. This is a two year project funded by the ESRC, and seeks to evaluate if FOI is achieving its objectives at the local level and is proving to be the empowerment tool for citizens as originally envisioned.

FOI and Parliament was an Leverhulme Trust-funded, two year project looking at how the UK Parliament as an institution has been changed by becoming subject to FOI. The project also examined how MPs have used FOI requests in their role as legislators, scrutinisers and advocates. The project sought to widen the understanding of how FOI – a recent UK constitutional development – has interacted with one of the oldest and most traditional public institutions.

Alongside this work, she writes the FOI monthly updates and International Profiles.

Previously, Gabrielle worked for the Parliamentary Service in New Zealand, firstly as a political researcher and later as an Executive Assistant to an MP. She holds an MA in History from the University of Auckland, and a BA (Hons) in Politics and History from the University of Otago.

Publications

• FOIA and local government in 2010: The experience of local authorities in England (Nov 2011, pdf)
• FOIA and local government in 2009: The experience of local authorities in England (Dec 2010, pdf)
• Town Hall transparency? The Impact of the Freedom of Information Act on English Local Government. Final Report. Ben Worthy, Jim Amos, Robert Hazell and Gabrielle Bourke, December 2011, pdf.
• The Sword and the Shield: The use of FOI by Parliamentarians and the Impact of FOI on Parliament Final Report. Ben Worthy and Gabrielle Bourke, September 2011