13.02.12
Trusts should not pay for FOI requests – FTN
Freedom of Information (FOI) requests should be limited, with those filing the requests to cover the costs of producing a reply except for the most minor queries, the Foundation Trust Network (FTN) has suggested.
Trusts can only charge requesters if the cost of the reply exceeds £450 and the FTN is calling for this limit to be brought down. As the average cost of a FOI is £500, this means that most requests would not be paid for by the trust.
The FTN made this suggestion in a submission to an inquiry into how the FOI act is working, set up by the House of Commons’ Justice Select Committee. It stated that in the light of financial pressures “it would be sensible to re-focus FOI activity more clearly on matters of public interest and to streamline the process for responding to legitimate requests”.
Each trust spends between £175,000 and £250,000 a year dealing with FOI requests, the FTN estimates, amounting to “significant sums of public money being diverted away from the core business of caring for patients”.
Additionally, they suggest that many requests are made for commercial reasons, to help decide how to bid for services.
However, many patient groups and health campaigners are opposing the change, suggesting that FOIs are instrumental in uncovering problems in the NHS.
Katherine Murphy, chief executive of the Patients Association, said: “This move could make it prohibitively expensive to obtain information through FOIs, which would not be in the interests of accountability [or] transparency.”
The select committee is due to review submissions later this year, before recommending changes to the law.
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