In the UK, Freedom of Information laws are now more than 20 years old. If you want to understand how they have impacted the way government operates, there are plenty of clues in the news headlines over the last few years:
- The Covid Inquiry gave us an extraordinary insight into how ministers and officials communicated during the pandemic, including the extensive use of WhatsApp.
- The Peter Mandleson affair raised questions about the vetting of ministers and civil servants, and more broadly, about what the public is entitled to know about the people exercising public power.
- And internationally, the release of the Epstein files demonstrated the enormous public interest in information held by powerful institutions and the political consequences when information is withheld or released.
In the latest episode of the Guardians of Data podcast we are joined by Dr Ben Worthy, a Reader in Politics and Public Policy at Birkbeck College, University of London. Ben has written extensively on issues around Transparency and Freedom of Information including authoring the book “The Politics of FOI”. Ben discusses the research studies that he has conducted into FOI practice in various sectors, to give us an insight into the effectiveness of FOI in achieving transparency. We also explore what FOI can (and cant) achieve and where transparency in the UK might be heading next.
Listen on your preferred platform via our podcast page, or download the episode directly.
If you want more perspectives on this important topic be sure to check out our other podcast episodes. In Episode 3, Maurice Frankel, the Director of the Campaign for Freedom of Information explains the history of FOI and his views on current and future challenges to the legislation. In Episode 9 we talk to Martin Rosenbaum, an
ex-BBC Journalist, who shares practical tips on dealing with FOI requests from journalists. Finally, in Episode 14 barrister, Saara Idelbi, gives advice on handling AI generated information requests.
This podcast is sponsored by Phaselaw – a purpose-built solution for document disclosures, like subject access requests and FOI requests. Instead of redacting PDFs one by one, or forcing litigation software to do a job it wasn’t designed for, with Phaselaw you get collection, review, and redaction in one workflow. Teams across the World are using it to cut response times from weeks to days.
For Guardians of Data listeners, Phaselaw is offering a two-month free trial; run it on live requests, see what it does to your backlog, decide from there. No card, no commitment.
Head to https://www.phase.law/guardians to claim your free trial.
Previous episodes of the Guardians of Data podcast have featured Dr. Agnieszka Piotrowska talking about the profound ways that Generative AI is changing human relationships, Professor Kistie Ball talking about employee surveillance without losing trust and Ilyas Nagdee analysing the impact of predictive policing on human rights.
