To what extent does the FOI legislation make the government
more accessible to the public?
An Increasing amount of political commentators over many years have argued that the FOI legislation make the government more accessible to the public. They believe this due to the fact that the public can find out very important details about MP’s and the government that they would have wished to kept under wraps because it can cause a great deal of controversy and embarrassment. However many people such as politicians throughout the government accessible to the public because there are exemptions which does not allow information to be disclosed to the public and also requests can be rejected if they are regarded as costly.
The Freedom of Information Act (FOI) came into force on 1st January 2005. The act allows the public to access information held by over 100,000 public bodies. The legislation cover public bodies in England, Wales, Northern Ireland and reserved powers of the Westminster Government within Scotland. The Freedom of Information Act allows the public to view information such as Central Government departments and agencies, local authorities, NHS, the armed forces, the police and the state schools, colleges and universities. In the first years of the Act 38,000 requests were made.