Unit research on Whitehall informs MoJ post-legislative scrutiny

The Ministry of Justice have today issued a post-legislative assessment of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 drawing heavily on Unit research. 

The Unit has conducted several research projects on the impact of freedom of information in the UK: 

• FOI & Whitehall
• FOI & Parliament
• FOI & Local Government

In January 2011, Lord McNally and the Deputy Prime Minister pledged to begin the process of post-legislative assessment of the Freedom of Information Act. As part of that process, the Government has submitted its assessment of how the Act has worked in practice to the Justice Select Committee.

The Committee will then decide whether to carry out further scrutiny of the Act.

The Memorandum examines how the Act was implemented and how it is used, the extent to which information is revealed under the Act and the impacts of the Act on public authorities. It explores the objectives of the Act when it was first passed and evaluates whether those objectives have been met.

Memorandum to the Justice Select Committee - Post-legislative scrutiny of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (PDF 0.50mb)