Official Secrecy and Freedom of Information

Abstract

The law relating to official information is unsatisfactory whether it be in respect of the protection of official secrets and government confidentiality, of legitimate public access to official information, of the safeguarding of personal privacy, or of the maintenance of an efficient system of official record-keeping and a proper national archive. These matters — protection, access, privacy and records — are closely related and proposals for reform in the law relating to any one of them must take the others into account. In an ideal world one would plan a coherent reform embracing them all. There is no prospect of a grand design: progress will be piecemeal if it takes place at all and the best we can hope for is to strive for consistency and to avoid the pitfalls marked out by other countries where incompatible provisions have been enacted. Concern about access to personal information and protection against its misuse is probably the major cause for public anxiety about official information in this country, the main reason for support for Freedom of Information legislation, and the subject of the largest proportion of requests for access under such legislation overseas.

Knowledge is power. It is important to recognise that the issue of open government is about power, political power, a shift in power, its redistribution. The government of the United Kingdom has in its possession a vast store of information and the ability to withhold information and to judge the timing of its publication is a part of political power. Open government entails increasing publication of official information to the press and the public who, with the power given by greater knowledge of the activities of government, are better able to assess, criticise and bring pressure to bear on the government’s performance. It is essentially a political issue.

Lord Franks¹