Since its full provisions first came into place some seven years ago, the Freedom of Information Act has allowed any member of the public to question public authorities on any subject they choose, including the University of York.
“Any subject they choose” can, and has included, the costs of the clean-up of duck excrement on campus or the type of trees found in ‘The Quiet Place’ (they’re mainly topiaried yew trees, if you’re interested), and universities across the country have recently expressed their displeasure at the obligation to answer these futile requests. So are Freedom of Information requests a waste of time and resources for the university, or is this information in the public interest?
Perhaps not with regards to scraping up duck excrement from outside the newly painted Central Hall, but why shouldn’t the university be encouraged to be a little more transparent with their dealings? Shouldn’t those that we pay thousands of pounds of fees to be held accountable on how they spend that money?
The Freedom of Information Act was first brought into place in 2000 and aimed to make public sector bodies more open and accountable. It also helps people understand better how public authorities carry out their duties, why they make the decisions they do and how they spend our money. This is still relevant for universities today.
Admittedly, a large number of FOI requests to universities are sent by student journalists throwing out a fishing line and hoping for something back, but equally anyone could, and should send in their own FOI requests. The university employs staff to fulfil this legal requirement and, for the right purposes, it’s something we should take advantage of. How much are the university paying academic staff? How much is being spent on the latest improvements to the uni’s infrastructure? These are all things that, as paying ‘customers’ at this institution, we should be interested in, whether it’s revealed by a campus newspaper or not.
FOI requests force universities and other public authorities to be more transparent with their dealings, something that we should all have an interest in, and for every question about how much money is spent on biscuits, some genuinely interesting data can be revealed on the internal workings of our university. By no means am I endorsing a scatter-gun approach to FOI requests sent to the university, but they undoubtedly can be a useful tool both to journalists and the public.
The Freedom of Information Act is being reconsidered by a parliamentary committee, with specific concerns regarding increasing request volumes and the cost to those that have to deal with them. For me, it’s arguably one of the most important pieces of legislation passed in the 21st Century. FOI requests revealed numerous details about the ‘War on Terror’ and the internal goings on of our country’s police force amongst other things. York Vision used it to expose the extravagance of Brian Cantor’s expense claims, clearly in the interest of students. It’s a powerful piece of legislation and should be one we value for its contribution to holding figures employed by the public accountable for their actions, no matter how many trees there are in ‘The Quiet Place’.
Transparency, within reason, is something we should be encouraging, not suppressing. Just try not to leave student journalists bearing the brunt of any criticism for your duck related queries..