All articles by Ibrahim Hasan – Page 3
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Feature
BOOK REVIEW Government and Information: The Law Relating to Access, Disclosure and their Regulation (4th edition)
Author: Ibrahim Hasan Access to information held by public officials is a controversial subject. Ever since the MPs’ expenses scandal, the WikiLeaks saga and even the phone-hacking scandal there seems to be an increasing demand for a clear explanation ...
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News
PFI; refusing requests; public sector salaries
Public authorities often enter into outsourcing and private finance initiative (PFI) arrangements with the private sector to run services or deliver capital projects. These are often the subject of complex requests for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FoI). Sometimes the private sector will ...
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News
Freedom of information and datasets
In January, the government announced plans to amend the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FoI) to ensure public authorities proactively release data in a way that allows businesses, non-profit organisations and others to reuse it for social and commercial purposes. OpenlyLocal, a local government data ...
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News
Local authority surveillance
In January, the Home Office published its long-awaited review of counter-terrorism and security powers. Amid all the headlines and controversy about control orders for suspected terrorists, it is easy to miss the proposed changes to local authorities’ powers to carry out surveillance under the Regulation of ...
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News
Freedom of information: who 'holds' project licences?
The Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FoI) applies to information which is held by a public authority at the time it receives an access request. The First Tier Tribunal (Information Rights) recently examined the sometimes difficult question of when information is ‘held’ in ...
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News
Local authorities and surveillance
For the first time in its history, the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) has published a ruling concerning a local authority’s use of surveillance powers under part 2 of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA).
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News
Freedom of Information Act and exemptions to the rule
There is no single FoI exemption which covers such reports, and often they will be disclosable in their entirety because they will contain no specific information about surveillance operations. However, where this is the case, or the request is for wider information about surveillance activity, the section 31 exemption (law ...
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News
Information law: the future
The coalition government has announced a series of legislative proposals and initiatives which will have a big impact on information law. David Cameron has said he wants to rip off the ‘cloak of secrecy’ around government and public services and extend transparency as far as possible.
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News
Freedom of information: rights of access and endangerment
Section 38 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 exempts public authority information from the general right of access if its disclosure would, or would be likely to, endanger the physical or mental health of any individual and/or the safety of any individual. The term ‘endanger’ is the same as ...
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News
Freedom of information: exemptions and vetoes
The tax status of the Conservative Party’s major donor and deputy chairman, Lord Ashcroft, has been the subject of much controversy and media headlines over the past few years.
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News
Freedom of information – update on recent FoI cases
The recent controversy over bonuses paid to civil servants employed by the Ministry of Defence highlights the public interest in salaries and bonuses of public sector officials.
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News
New information commissioner Christopher Graham has much to do
The new information commissioner, Christopher Graham, took up his post in June this year. Mr Graham previously ran the Advertising Standards Authority. One of his main challenges will be to tackle the lengthy backlog of cases that his office (the ICO) has been struggling with.
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News
Freedom of information: exemptions from disclosure
Freedom of information has been at the heart of the news agenda with the revelations made by the Daily Telegraph about MPs’ expenses. It’s worth remembering that, while the Telegraph came by the leaked information from someone in the House of Commons fees office...
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News
Freedom of information: cabinet minutes, audit reports, BBC appeal
Probably the most controversial decision under the Freedom of Information Act was published by the Information Tribunal on 27 January 2009 (Cabinet Office and Dr Christopher Lamb v Information Commissioner (EA/2008/0024 & 0029))...
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News
Vexatious requests, audit reports, data protection and disclosing legal advice
It is now four years since the Freedom of Information Act 2000 came into force. While the act is about opening up the public sector to more scrutiny through access to recorded information, parliament has recognised the importance of ensuring that public authorities are protected from vexatious requests that waste ...
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News
Freedom of information - holding data for others
An Ofsted inspection is a worrying time for school staff, students and parents.
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News
Freedom of information: documents and diplomats
Lawyers who act as external legal advisers to large public authorities will inevitably hold a lot of documents about the subject of their instructions. Consequently, when their clients receive Freedom of Information Act requests, some of these documents may be caught by the act as being information ‘held by another ...
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News
Freedom of information
Requests to public authorities under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FoI) are becoming more challenging. Some authorities are even receiving requests about how they handle such requests.
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News
Right to privacy versus the public’s right to know
The Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FoI) continues to surprise and baffle public sector information managers and lawyers. Every month there are an average of 20 decisions made by the information commissioner and eight by the Information Tribunal.
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