FREEDOM Of Information is one of the most important pieces of legislation to be introduced over the last few years.
At a stroke it has given people the right to ask for information they feel they should know.
Many of the requests relate to how our money as taxpayers is spent – often information neither the press nor the public could have gleaned without the FOI system.
Requests are sent to dedicated FOI officers and the answer comes back several weeks later. Sometimes it has the information required and sometimes not, but you don’t know how the answer to that question has been collated or who has been involved in putting the reply together.
So many people will be rightly shocked to discover that politicians are getting involved.
All people want is factual answers to factual questions and that is what the FOI is all about. No flannel, no spin.
So when we discover that the leader of the council, Clr Mehboob Khan, has admitted changing one in 100 FOI requests then that is worrying.
We have exposed some of the cases today, but remain in the dark about many others.
Just what would the replies have been to those if Clr Khan had not intervened?
There is a procedure to challenge responses and that could happen more often now that people’s faith in the system has been shaken.
