Freedom of Information Act

Freedom of Information Act allows people, including journalists to have the right to access any information held by public authorities, such as Government departments, local authorities, the police and hospitals. It can be any any information. This is important for the citizens to know everything they need to in order to make democracy work. By having a access to essential information they can plan for the future, as well as choose which politicians to vote for.
This is also an interesting source of information for investigative journalists. The Freedom of Information Act allows them to produces free exclusive news stories. We had one of them at WINOL a few weeks ago produced by Julie. She investigated the number of previous convictions of police officers in Winchester, by sending a request to Freedom of Information Act. 

The frustrating thing that journalists have to go through while investigating is the fact that they information can be really delayed, so the story has to be planned in advance. If a public authority receives a request for information it must make a response within 20 working days, either giving the requested information or explaining why it can not be supplied. 

There are various reason for why the information may not be supplied. That includes the possibility that the public authority does not hold the information, or the request would exceed the cost limits for the provision of free information or that the information is covered by exemptions under the Act, and therefore need to be supplied.

The information that is held by the public authority will be provided free of charge if it costs government department £600 or less to provide, or any other public authority £450 or less to provide.