Freedom of Information Is a Right, but the Government Is

Intent on Suppressing It
From HIV-infected blood to the cladding scandal, the Tories are avoiding democratic scrutiny
Jason Evans was four when his father died of Aids having received a HIV-contaminated blood
transfusion from the NHS. This scandal, in which more than 1,000 people die, is the subject of a long-
running inquiry. However, Jason, now in his 30s, became tired of waiting and decided to try to get some
answers for himself.
In 2018, he submitted a From of Information Act (FoI) request to the Treasury to see if its files could
shed any light on what happened. Government departments are supposed to respond to FoI requests
within 20 working days yet, for months, there was nothing.
What happened? It turns out the Treasury was willing to give Jason what he was looking for, but then
staff from an FoI “clearing house” stepped in. They said the information had to be “managed” and
compared the situation to the Chilcot inquiry into the Iraq war. They warned that former minister “will
be very sore” about the disclosures which included a private acknowledgement from the health secretary,
Ken Clarke, that some health authorities had been negligent.
This wasn’t an isolated incident. In November, open Democracy revealed how this secretive clearing
house, which operates within Michael Gove’s Cabinet Office, regularly screens hundreds of FoI requests
from jounalists and campaigners such as Jason and then blocks the release of “sensitive” information.
It’s been described as “Orwellian” by the head of the National Union of Jounarlist. Legal experts say it
also breaks the law, which is supposed to treat FoI requests as “applicant blind”.
In a rare show of unity this week, editors from rival newspapers across Fleet Street – including the
Guardian and Observer, the Times, Telegraph and Paul Dacre of Associated Newspapers – signed a joint
letter to MPs demanding an urgent investigation into the clearing house. They have also called for a
number of steps to protect and strengthen FoI laws, which they see as a vital pillar of press freedom.
Without the Freedom of Information Act, the MP’s expenses scandal would never have come to light
and our taxes would still be paying for duck houses and moat cleaning. We’d never have known about
the Prince of Wals’s private lobbying or about Britains’s role in Israel’s nuclear weapons programme.
Yet now our fundamental right to access information and scrutinise the workings of government is being
fatally undermined. FoI request rate are the lowers since the act came into force 15 years ago, and the
regulator has slammed the government for repeated and “unacceptable” failures.
This isn’t just some administrative accident. From ignoring MP’s Parliamentary questions, to the heavy
redacting of details of public contracts and the “stonewalling” of reporters, Boris Johnson’s government
has used the pandemic as a pretext for secrecy and evasion.
Journalists in our newsroom at openDemocracy have experienced it first-hand. Our political
correspondent, James Cusick, has held a parliamentary lobby pass for decades – but was told last year
that he’s not permitted to ask questions at the daily Covid press briefings. Why? According to No 10,
openDemocracy is not a news outlet but a “campaigning” organisation; an epithet also used to smear the
Guardian and Mirror when they dared to ask what Dominic Cummings was doing in Barnard Castle.
The censorship watchdog, Reporters without Borders, has criticized the government’s “vindictive”
response to media criticism during Covid and warned eroded. The promised “reset” with the departure
of Cummings and the installation of Allegra Stratton as Downing Stress press secretary is yet to
materialise. Meanwhile, Michael Gove insisted to MPs in December that the government treats all FoI
requests in “exactly the same way … whether or not it’s a freelance journalist, someone working for an
established title, or a concerned citizen”.
This is false. When our reporter, Jenna Corderoy, sent a FoI request to the attorney general’s office, staff
wrote in internal emails: “Just flagging that Jenna Corderoy is a journalist,” and: “Once the response is
confirmed, I’ll just need [redacted] to sign off on this before it goes out, since Jenna Corderoy is a
reporter for openDemocracy”.
Other disclosures suggest that many other FoI requests, including those from the Guaridan, the Times,
the BBC, Privacy International and Big Brother Watch have been treated in similar ways.
Gove’s Cabinet Office claimed in a public statement this week that it is “fully committed” to
transparency, denying there is anything “secret” about the clearing house. Why, then, is it paying
lawyers to fight an information commissioner’s office ruling, which says it must release details about the
operation? Why are there no published guidelines or criteria about when requests should be referred to
it, no published statistics on what it reviews? Why does it even exist, when there is no legislation or
mandate that stipulates the need for it? And why do reporters such as Corderoy, whose personal details
are shared across Whitehall, have to fight long-running legal battles to extract basic information that we
are all legally entitled to?
Pressure is mounting. It’s rare for Fleet Street to speak with one voice, and more than 40,000 people
have now signed a petition to Gove. Labour is calling for the Freedom of Information Act to be extended
to cover public service contracts outsourced to private firms, amid numerous reports of prominent Tory
donors being handed lucrative Covid PPE contracts. Senior Conservatives are beginning to demand
answers about the clearing house, too.
Freedom of information isn’t a luxury: it’s our right, and its corrosion has profound consequences for us
all. Three and a half years after 72 people died in the Grenfell Tower fire, the housing ministry has been
telling local councils it is “appropriate” to block FoI requests that would identify buildings that still have
Grenfell-style cladding. Meanwhile, for Jason Evans, it’s “intolerable” that so many people, like his
father, “have been killed due to Whitehall action – and now we’re having to fight for answers and are
being delayed in the process due to Whitehall action.”
“Slowly but surely”, he said, “I believe we are piecing together one of the biggest UK cover-ups to have
taken place in a generation.”
 1. Words and phrases explannation
a.shed any light on
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b. paying for duck houses and moat cleaning
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c. fatally undermined
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d. a pretext for secrecy and evasion
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e. the government’s “vindictive” response to media criticism
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f. pressure is mounting
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2. Comprehension questions
a.What happened when Jason Evans submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FoI) request the easury?
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b. What have editors from rival newspapers across Fleet Street done together?
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c. How does the writer criticize Boris Johnson’s government?
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d. What is Michael Gove’s response to the accusation?
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e. Why is Labour calling for the Freedom of Information Act to be extended?
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