Dodging the Freedom of Information Act: Why the Big Society poses a big threat to journalists
For as long as the Coalition have been in government, we’ve heard talk about the ‘Big Society’. In its broadest sense, it’s supposed to be about empowering communities to do things for themselves.
Critics – public sector trade unions, for example – argue it’s a back-door way to reduce the size of the State, shifting as much as possible out of the public sector and either into the private sector or the very grey area of non-for-profit organisations and social enterprises.
For journalists – and, indeed, anyone with an interest in holding those who spend our money to account – there’s a danger that Big Society = Big threat to our right to know.
Put simply, at the moment, if a service currently provided within the public sector – and therefore subject to FOI – is moved into the private sector, or third-party organisation, there is no guarantee that FOI legislation will follow with it.
My understanding is that those at the very top of Government are reluctant to insist on the same levels of transparency should a service move out of direct public sector control because they fear it might be seen as ‘red tape’ which puts would-be providers off.
There is an argument which says that the organisation commissioning the service from the third party organisation – a council or primary care trust, for example – should still be able to provide all the information you might want, but we already know this isn’t the case.
