Improvements in proactive publication for public authorities

Transparency is the cornerstone of accountability, and the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) is designed to increase transparency. But this legislation isn’t just about responding to requests; public authorities must also publish information proactively. This allows the public to routinely access information that is in the public interest and is safe to disclose. 

The ICO’s Upstream Regulation team is here to support public authorities to be open and accountable with the public you serve. In my blog last summer, I mentioned that compliance with the duty to proactively publish information is an area we intended to look at. This is an update on where we’re up to with that work. 

Publication schemes 

The Freedom of Information Act requires all public authorities to have a publication scheme, to publish information in accordance with it, and to regularly review it.  

We looked at whether more than 70 public authorities - from sectors including health, education and local government - had publication schemes. We identified 18 that didn’t have one published on their website and made further enquiries with them all. Following our work, all have now taken steps to comply with this requirement and publish more information proactively. We have also been made aware of other public authorities who have heard about our work in this area and have then updated their publication schemes. 

It’s worth remembering that public authorities shouldn’t just look at publication schemes as a legal requirement - they help people to find, or be directed to, relevant information that has already been published. We asked our stakeholders whether they agree or disagree that proactively publishing information has helped their ability to manage FOI request volumes. More respondents agreed (33.5%) than disagreed (23.5%). You can read how proactive publication has helped the London Borough of Camden free up staff time to concentrate on other FOI requests as a result of being able to handle more enquiries as “business as usual”. 

In order to put a publication scheme in place, you should adopt our model publication scheme and use our definition documents to publish a guide (or index) to help requesters locate the published information. Both the guide and the linked content need to be kept up to date. You’ll also need to know what you want to publish. Last year we worked with WhatDoTheyKnow to understand what people were looking for when submitting FOI requests. You can read our findings in this blog which helps public authorities across a range of sectors to consider whether proactive publication of this information would benefit their organisation and help to reduce information requests. 

Publication of compliance statistics 

As part of our work on proactive publication, we also looked at whether the same public authorities were publishing their compliance statistics, which is set out as good practice in part 8.5 of the code of practice issued under section 45 of FOIA. We found 13 that did not and, following our engagement with them, all now do so. 

Since publishing our FOI and Transparency regulatory manual public authorities, and all have begun doing so, helping build a greater culture of transparency and accountability. Our data collection template can help you compile these compliance statistics. 

Advice for the public 

We understand that managing large volumes of FOI requests can be challenging, and our focus in this area hasn’t solely been on what public authorities can do. We have also published tips for those making requests to help them access information already available before making a request. If your organisation has FOI resources online, are you providing similar advice to requestors? 

Next steps 

We will continue to build an evidence base of the benefits of proactive transparency and include proactive publication as part of our overall approach to supporting public authorities with their compliance of FOIA. If you’ve noticed that proactively publishing information has had an impact on your caseloads, please tell us about your experiences.