Liberal Vannin Party 'totally opposed' to government's FOI proposals

Party says supposed processing times are 'a reflection of how poorly data is held within government silos'

The Liberal Vannin Party says it is 'totally opposed' to government proposals to charge people for submitting Freedom of Information requests.

A consultation on the idea opened this week, with government saying the number of complex requests, which take more than 18 hours to process, is growing.

In response, the party says information about public services 'should be freely available' and that 'FoI requests are only sought because access to information is frequently difficult to find'.

It argues that the 'best way of reducing the need for FOI requests is for government to provide information about its services in a more open and transparent way'.

The party says it would be interested to hear from anyone with ideas on how to minimise 'vexatious' requests, but it believes that 'the vast majority of FoI requests are from people genuinely concerned about how public services are being provided and funded'.

The Liberal Vannin statement in full: "Liberal Vannin Party is totally opposed to the government's proposal to charge fees for Freedom of Information requests.

"Information about public services should be freely available and FoI requests are only sought because access to information is frequently difficult to find.

"The best way of reducing the need for FOI requests is for government to provide information about its services in a more open and transparent way. 

"If some requests take a lot of staff time to answer; then that is often a reflection of how poorly data is held within government silos.

"Government is also concerned that many requests are submitted by just a few individuals, some of which may be vexatious in nature. 

"Liberal Vannin would be interested to hear from anyone with ideas to minimise this, but we believe that the vast majority of FoI requests are from people genuinely concerned about how public services are being provided and funded.

"Liberal Vannin urges everyone to make their views known via the government's consultation."