01 Jan 2005

Information Freed

The UK’s Freedom of Information Act comes into force today, compelling public bodies to reply to requests for information (although the exemptions offer plenty of room for avoidance). I’m sure such bodies are bracing themselves for an onslaught of letters from pranksters and the paranoid, as well as numerous speculative requests from journalists hoping to get lucky and unearth something interesting.

Of course, it’s purely coincidental that just before Christmas some government staff were instructed to delete emails, and I’m sure the shredders were no busier than usual. It might be interesting to file a request about how email purges have been managed in the past, for comparison, if that information hasn’t been deleted as part of ‘normal housekeeping’.