Laws restricting disclosure of information

Introduction

Many laws recently introduced included clauses and sections that prevented disclosure of information, some even making it a criminal offence. When such a restriction exists, The FOI Act's Section 44 comes into play, and is used as an absolute exemption which means that no information can be released, even when there may be an overriding public interest.

List of laws

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List of laws that have had restrictions removed or relaxed

• The FOI Act Section 75 allows the Secretary of State to relax or remove these laws that have a s44 prohibition via a Statutory Instrument. There has been one such SI to-date (SI 2004/3363).
• The wording used in most cases was as follows:

"(a) the person making the disclosure referred to in that section is, or is acting on behalf of a person who is, a public authority for the purposes of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, and

(b) the information is not held by the authority on behalf of another person."

• Access to Justice Act 1999, section 20 (but only after 100 years!)
• Audit Commission Act 1998, section 49 (in part)
• Biological Standards Act 1975, section 5 (fully repealed)
• Factories Act 1961, section 154
• Health and Safety At Work Act 1974, section 28 (in part)
• Medicines Act 1968, section 118
• National Health Service Act 1977, schedule 11, paragraph 5
• Offices, Shops and Railway Premises Act 1963, section 59