For the the third in our series of discovery workshops, we invited people working with FOI in public authorities to discuss how a network might support them — and we had more than 50 attendees joining us from a range of organisations and specialities. 

Discussion was lively and informative, with many expressing a thirst for community and knowledge-sharing in their roles.

We began with a group brainstorming session to discuss the challenges and obstacles people were facing in their work with FOI. 

From this, we pulled out the four major groupings below, so that smaller breakout groups could discuss what attempts had been made previously to mitigate these challenges, how effective these had been, and what an FOI Network could do to help.

Volume/complexity of requests

The increasing volume of FOI requests being received (a challenge which overlaps with that of the lack of resources, below) came up as a common issue, especially in conjunction with the increasing use of AI to generate requests. 

Here, there are two concerns: that AI is leading to more complex (if not necessarily more effective) requests; and that there is potential for a deliberate, malicious use of AI-generated FOI requests that might overwhelm an authority without their necessarily being aware of it. 

AI-generated/assisted requests are hard to formally recognise (although many are developing a ‘gut feeling’ around them), but also not inherently illegitimate. The group discussed tactics such as asking for clarification or ID, to flush out potentially inauthentic requests if suspected. A participant from the ICO also shared their recent AI guidance.

What could an FOI Network contribute here? Convening people was seen as useful in helping to understand patterns and themes between authorities, and shared approaches. This might take the form of directly organised networking activity, or supporting and promoting the informal networks that already exist. 

Building centralised resources might also help in creating tools for assessing thresholds of vexatiousness, while also providing better assistance to requesters on what good and bad degrees of complexity looks like in an FOI request. 

Locating information

Finding the information that is being requested is at the very heart of what an FOI officer does  — and can present a sizable challenge, especially where data is not collected or stored consistently. 

Discussion touched on issues around record keeping, proactive publication, resource and support from colleagues in sourcing/collecting  information: while the officer is the entry point for requests for information, they most likely hold little of it themselves. 

The amount of resource, support and priority is given to record keeping and FOI across the organisation affects how effective an officer can be. 

Information can only be easily accessed if it is stored well: some participants talked about requests for data that is not currently centrally held, but which requesters argue should be, leading to antagonistic interactions, despite the Information Officer not being to blame. 

Participants talked both about resourcing conflicts where other priorities were legitimately higher (eg “The information holders are clinical staff (NHS) and trying to get them to answer FOI requests when they are busy with patients is not reasonable”); but also situations where requests not taken seriously by senior teams, or other departments were slow to engage with them. 

As such, a key challenge for information officers is navigating both the formal and relational structures of their organisation, and a key challenge for an FOI Network is finding ways to support this role in developing a culture of transparency and good record keeping practice.

Part of this fits with our theory that good FOI statistics are an important factor in empowering information officers — because this visibility would make FOI performance between organisations more salient, and so a greater concern for senior decision-makers. 

Lack of resources

This group discussed the lack of resources, staffing and slashed funding — including elsewhere in the organisation, where diminished budgets can remove the institutional knowledge and capacity to effectively find information.

This was another area where there was great enthusiasm for better connections between officers across organisations, especially for the small, isolated teams. This would allow all to benefit from the knowledge of a wider group. 

For a longer-term fix to the lack of resources, a united network could lobby to central government. This isn’t just about “more money”, but the effective production of centralised resources that would help everyone (eg software, tools and licences). 

It was noted that redaction was a problem that was significantly time consuming, and available redaction tools (like Adobe Pro) were expensive and had limited licences. 

Proactive publication was also identified as a resourcing issue: in repeated requests for hot topics; but also in that publishing information can lead to more requests asking for specifics. 

From our point of view running WhatDoTheyKnow, this should still mean a greater public benefit from the information provided (people who wouldn’t ask for it have access to it), but does caution against an easy “publish more, request numbers decrease” approach — which does not align with the experience of practitioners. 

Working with requesters

This group discussed complaints resulting from a requester not knowing how to navigate the FOI system or complaints processes, and thoughts on more effective communication. A lack of requester awareness that the FOI route is not the same as the complaint route was identified, as well as public confusion between FOI and data subject rights. 

There is recognition that the requester doesn’t always know what information is available, which can lead to complex initial requests. But there was also a reported increase in adversarial/angry complaints, with a perception from request-makers that information was being denied when in didn’t exist. Where people are making requests across multiple authorities, getting refusals from some but not from others, can lead to this impression, while actually just reflecting differences in what data is collected. 

Better information and signposting about how to make a good FOI request was considered helpful, but within limits. Improved web forms can be helpful, but are not the only route in. At the same time, from a volume and overload point of view, a concern that greater awareness of the act might lead to more requests. This makes it important to define what we’re after as a network that can reconcile both a civil society “it’s good if more people are aware of and use their rights” with the practicalities of make that right real, which includes understanding of capacity.

In general, a lot of the potential in this area is around helping those making, and those answering requests to understand each other, or at least understanding more about how things work behind the scenes. 

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Finally, there was a more general discussion about forms a network can take, including the difficulty of convening both requesters and practitioners. Creating spaces for authority-side practitioners to talk helps with the smooth functioning of the FOI Act; these spaces would be more hesitant if always shared with civil society groups (and vice versa). 

We want to find ways to bridge these groups, while recognising that both individually can be constructive.  We need a set of layered discussions about how to make FOI work in practice, that can manage both communities of practice, also bridging both sides — recognising where common frustrations and collective goals can be served through better communication and coordination. This is inherently going to be complex, but will be so worthwhile to explore. 

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Illustration: Alghozy

Last Thursday, a diverse set of people with a common interest came together at Birkbeck College in London for FOI Fest — a one day conference examining the successes, challenges and future of the Freedom of Information Act. We heard from a wide range of perspectives: those who use FOI, those who process requests, those who research the workings and effects of the Act, and those who oversee its application.

We couldn’t have wished for a better day: there was so much to discuss, with relevant and timely presentations, and real engagement in the room. As this was a kick-off event for the incipient FOI Network, the enthusiasm was gratifying; and there seems to be consensus that this should be considered the inaugural FOI Fest, rather than a standalone event.

We heard from both FOI regulators, listened to expert discussion, learned from an excellent set of skills sessions where experts shared insights on how to use FOI well; and enjoyed a set of short lightning talks where users explained how they had brought change through FOI. We’ve added links to each video presentation so you can watch any that are of interest.

Gavin Freeguard, longtime mySociety associate and FOI expert, was our host and co-organiser, kicking off proceedings by pointing out that the introduction of the FOI Act represented a “fundamental and vital change in the relationship between the public and government”. Our rights under FOI have survived two decades, and in the process an ecosystem of activists, researchers, campaigners, journalists and commissioners has arisen.

Information Commissioner John Edwards couldn’t be with us in person, but did send a video address, talking frankly about how the body is equally as stretched as they know many authorities are too — partly thanks to the increased use of AI. This was a theme that would recur through the day, from different authorities, although, as John was keen to point out, more FOI requests means more people accessing their right to information, and that, in itself, is a real positive.

Warren Seddon, Director of FOI and Transparency at the Information Commissioner’s Office, provided our first keynote, picking up on the theme of the increase in requests needing their oversight (they’re on track to receive more than 10,000 FOI complaints this year alone). AI-generated requests tend to be longer, contain inaccuracies and are less easy to understand. However, there was good news too: the ICO are exploring setting up an external monitoring system for public authorities outside of central government; Warren told us to watch this space.

Warren Seddon

Next, investigative journalist Jenna Corderoy, CEO of the Campaign for FOI Maurice Frankel, and Transparency International’s Rose Whiffen joined Warren for a panel discussion to interrogate the question “What has 21 years of FOI changed?“. 

Maurice began with the observation that the ICO’s powers are not strongly enough applied, resulting in many authorities experiencing no penalties for bad faith or late responses, albeit he’s detected some improvement since John Edwards took post. 

Jenna pointed out that times have changed since the introduction of FOI, but the Act hasn’t kept up, as can be seen for example by the government’s use of WhatsApp for messages that can be deleted and therefore cannot be publicly released. There’s an attitude issue, too: many authorities still see FOI as burdensome or even malign, when really we should all be supportive of this essential mechanism for transparency, allowing the vital uncovering of corruption and wrongdoing. 

Rose asserted that FOI has shifted public expectations, and built momentum for better government transparency, “rebalancing the information asymmetry which is where corruption thrives” and “shifting the risk calculation around corruption”.

Warren added that the things politicians were afraid of when the Act was first introduced have, for the most part, not been realised; and that it’s a great thing that any one of us can find out information from our local school, hospital or council.

Andreas Pavlou, Eleanor Shaikh, Isaac Beevor and Alex Parsons

In the next session, we enjoyed three ‘lightning talks’ – five minute presentations. Eleanor Shaikh, whose work you can read about in more detail in our blog post, used her slot to explain how the Act had given her the tools to uncover fundamental aspects of the UK Post Office Horizon scandal, many of which made front page headlines. She stressed the importance of taking your time to avoid being labelled ‘vexatious’, spacing requests out.

Isaac Beevor, from our Scorecards partners Climate Emergency UK, explained their use of FOI requests to obtain standardised datasets around councils’ road expansion plans, EPC ratings in social housing, energy procurement and more, as detailed in this blog post. He included a shoutout for WhatDoTheyKnow Pro and its Projects functionality, which meant they could share the work across a team of volunteers.

In the Q&A, an audience member expressed how very inspiring these two examples were, showing how one person can use FOI to bring real change.

Finally, Andreas Pavlou, Lead at the Open Government Partnership Independent Reporting Mechanism, brought the good news of positive advances in Access to Information in countries such as the Netherlands and Brazil, banging the drum for one of our favourite watchwords, collaboration.

George Greenwood

Before breaking for lunch, we enjoyed three skills sessions.

George Greenwood, Investigations Reporter at the Times, shared ten tips from his long experience of using FOI, which you can see for yourself on our Bluesky thread.

Lucas Amin of Democracy For Sale shared his experience of using EIR (Environmental Information Regulation) to uncover big stories: he’s also shared these at one of our ATI Network online events, so you can rewatch that here if you’re interested. 

And Ben Worthy, senior lecturer in Politics at Birkbeck College, explained his research project which used FOI to dig more deeply into how FOI works, experimenting to see whether formal requests were more likely to get a response (they are).

David Hamilton

After lunch, we complemented the morning’s keynote with another, this time from David Hamilton, the Scottish Information Commissioner, who echoed his ICO counterpart’s observations about the rise in complaints — partly because of AI and partly because public recognition of FOI is “higher than it’s ever been” (partly due to the recent high profile inquiry into the First Minister). “If you see the rights, you’re happy to use the rights”, he said, noting that the Scottish Information Commissioner is on the front page of a newspaper on average every three days at the moment, and that transparency was going to be a massive issue in Scotland’s forthcoming May election.

David also ran through the FOI Reform Bill currently going through Scottish Parliament, noting the differences between this and the FOI Act (which covers England, Wales and Northern Ireland, plus UK-wide public authorities that are based in Scotland).

For our second panel of the day, asking “What next for FOI?“, David was joined by Director of the Campaign for Freedom of Information in Scotland Carole Ewart, Ben Worthy, and mySociety’s Alex Parsons and Louise Crow.

David Hamilton, Louise Crow, Carole Ewart, Ben Worthy and Alex Parsons

Louise began by reminding us that not every user of WhatDoTheyKnow is making a Freedom of Information request: in fact, each response is viewed on average 160 times, massively multiplying the benefit of the information contained within it. The publication of responses also means that authorities don’t have to deal with the same requests multiple times, as the information is free for all to see. She then highlighted the importance of FOI adapting to the current rise of AI systems, and the necessity of record-keeping so that transparency about how they work is not allowed to become opaque.

Ben shared his research on the use of AI in requests, observing that in the last year the number of authorities indicating that they are receiving requests composed by AI has risen from 30 to 70%. 

Carole was frank about the blocks to reform, saying that the attitudes towards FOI needed to change so that it was no longer seen as adversarial or aggressive — but she welcomed the changes on the horizon for Scotland.

Then, in our second skills session, Maurice Frankel of the Campaign for FOI shared tips for success with FOI requests, not least around keeping them within cost limits; and Martin Rosenbaum, author of Freedom of Information: A Practical Guidebook and for many years BBC News’ FOI expert, explained the importance both of persistence and of wording your requests carefully. Finally, mySociety’s own Julia Cushion and Gareth Rees explained what we’ve been doing on WhatDoTheyKnow and Alaveteli recently, from our beginners’ guide to FOI, to this page showcasing what FOI has done around the world. 

There was just time for three more lightning talks: reshowing this video from Gabriel Geiger, Investigative Reporter at Lighthouse Reports, on their award-winning Suspicion Machines investigation that showed how machine learning algorithms were disproportionately targeting individuals based on ethnicity and gender; followed by talks from Alex Homer, Senior Journalist at the BBC Shared Data Unit who shared a live investigation around the National Police Chiefs’ Council; and Carole Ewart, Director, Campaign for Freedom of Information in Scotland spoke about their work aiding NGOs in the use of FOI.

Finally Louise Crow wrapped up the day, and before we knew it, it was time to repair to the pub to carry on conversations in a more informal setting. An all-round success – and, we hope, the start of a very useful new network that we’ll be progressing over the next few weeks. Please fill in this form if you have an interest in being part of it.

Thanks to all our speakers, and to everyone who came and helped make the day a success. We’re also grateful to JRRT for supporting this exploration of the network, and eCase for additional sponsorship. Special thanks to Ben Worthy and Birkbeck for providing the excellent venue for the conference, and to Gavin Freeguard for compering the day, and all his work bringing the network together.

Gareth Rees, Julia Cushion, Martin Rosenbaum, Maurice Frankel and Gavin Freeguard