Below is our response to the Ministry of Justice's public consultation on adding new , mostly private sector organisations to the list of 100,000 or so Public Bodies to which the Freedom of Information Act 2000 applies.
The Consultation Document:
Freedom of Information Act 2000: Designation of additional public authorities (.pdf)
Send in your response, nominally by tomorrow, Friday 1st February 2008 to:
Ayobola Akwarandu
Ministry of Justice
Information Rights Division
6.16, 6th Floor
Selborne House
54-60 Victoria Street
London
SW1E 6QW
Tel: 020 7210 8034
Fax: 020 7201 7777
Email: informationrights@justice.gsi.gov.uk
Our submission:
Freedom of Information Act Public Bodies Consultation
The following Public Bodies already meet the statutory criteria, having been established by Act of Parliament, and appointed by the Prime Minister:
The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 Commissioners:
- Chief Surveillance Commissioner
- Interception of Communications Commissioner
- Intelligence Services Commissioner
N.B. none of these are Tribunals, as was erroneously claimed by the former Department of Consitutional Affairs, and they have increased their staff and workoload recently.
Similarly, the not yet appointed
- National Identity Scheme Commissioner
under the Identity Cards Act 2006 must also be included, for the same reasons.
These organisations comprise of entirely public funded members, even though they raise a small proportion of their running costs through conferences and exhibitions, They must also be included as Public Bodies for the purposes of FOI include:
- Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO)
- Scottish Association of Chief Police Officers (SACPO)
The following heavily regulated, privatised monopoly organisations, are spending vast sums of public money from subsidies, although they do get money from the private sector. There are aspects of their projects which are already controversial and must be seen to be much more transparent:
- Olympic Delivery Authority
- National Rail
- British Airports Authority
Section 5 inclusions:
A simple test for deciding about the "functions of a public nature" of a private sector or former nationalised company, which usually still holds a monopolistic market share, is to ask the question :
"Does this company own or operate part of the Critical National Infrastructure ?"
i.e.would the loss or disruption of their activities seriously affect a large section of the public or put lives at risk ?
See the Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure
http://www.cpni.gov.ukThere are nine sectors which deliver essential services. These are: energy, food, water, transport, communications, government, emergency services, health and finance.
If so, then "functions of a public nature" is indisputable.
"government, emergency services" and "health" are mostly already Public Bodies for FOIA purposes
The Section 5 extension should therefore apply to the major companies in the "energy, food, water, transport, communications" sectors
For example
Telecommunications Suppliers
Fixed line telecommunications companies
- British Telecom plc
- Cable & Wireless
- NTL Cable
Mobile Telephone Networks Operators
- O2
- Vodafone
- Orange
- T-mobile
- Three
Internet Service Providers
Members of LINX - the London Internet Exchange
https://www.linx.net/about/memberlist.html
Water Companies
- Anglian Water Services Ltd
- Bristol Water plc
- Bournemouth and West Hampshire plc
- Cambridge Water plc
- Dee Valley Water plc
- Folkstone and Dover Water Services Ltd
- Mid Kent Water plc
- South East Water plc
- Northumbrian Water Ltd
- United Utilities Water plc
- Portsmouth Water plc
- Sutton and East Surrey Water plc
- Southern Water Services Ltd
- South Staffordshire Water plc
- Severn Trent Water Ltd
- South West Water Ltd
- Tendring Hundred Water Services Ltd
- Thames Water Utilities Ltd
- Three Valleys Water Services plc
- Dwr Cymru Cyfyngedig (Welsh Water)
- Wessex Water Services Ltd
- Yorkshire Water Services Ltd
