Freedom of Information Act: Frequently Asked Questions
 What is the Freedom of Information Act?
 The Freedom of Information Act creates a right of access to official information and places a duty on public authorities to publish information.
What is a public authority?
A public authority includes central government departments and agencies, local government, state schools and universities, police, NHS and publicly owned companies.
Is all information created by a public authority subject to the requirements of the Act?
Yes, including research data; although there are twenty-three exemptions from the general rights of access.
Are there any access exemptions for research data?
There are two types of exemptions: absolute and qualified exemptions. Absolute exemptions are where the right of access is wholly disapplied (eg information relating to security matters). Qualified exemptions are cases where the public authority has identified a possible exemption and must consider whether it is in the public interest to withhold such information. Examples of qualified exemptions included commercial interests which could possibly be applied to research information.
What is ‘public interest’?
Public authorities have to conduct a public interest test to determine whether information should be released under the Act. Put simply, the public authority decides whether it serves the interest of the public better to withhold or disclose information as a result of a request for disclosure. In cases where exemptions are applied the public authority must be able to justify doing so.
Is there other legislation that is relevant to the issue?
Data protection legislation is relevant; both pieces of legislation are overseen by the same regulator, the Information Commissioner. Similarly there exists other legislation which makes it an offence to disclose some types of information eg census data is protected by the Census Act of 1920 and 1991 and data collected in statutory business surveys is protected by S9 of the Statistics of Trade Act 1947.
What is the difference between Freedom of Information and Data Protection?
The Data Protection Act enables individuals to gain access about them; the Freedom of Information Act enables individuals to gain access to all information held by public authorities. It should be noted that personal data is an absolute exemption under the Freedom of Information Act and as such this legislation can not be used to gather personal data about other individuals.
Further information about the Freedom of Information Act can be found on the Information Commissioner’s website www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk.
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