The impact of the UK Freedom of
Information Act on records
management
Dr Elizabeth Shepherd
Department of Information Studies, University
College London
UK Freedom of Information (FOI) Act 2000
• fully into force in January 2005
• most important UK legislation to include records
management guidance for all public authorities
• know what information they hold; deal within 20
days with FOI requests; disseminate information
through a ‘publication scheme’
Code of Practice on Records Management
“Freedom of information legislation is only as good
as the quality of the records and other information
to which it provides access. Such rights are of little
use if reliable records are not created in the first
place, if they cannot be found when needed or if
the arrangements for their eventual destruction or
transfer to an archives service are inadequate.”
Research project
• Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research
Council for a year, 2008-09
• What has been the impact of the FOIA on records
management in public authorities, especially local
government, in the UK?
• three perspectives: records managers, FOI policy
managers, FOI requestors and user communities
Research objectives
1. how well records management services prepared
for and coped with the first three years of FOI
implementation
2. what contribution records management services
make to the ability of public authorities to comply
with the FOI Act
3. how the user experience of FOI is affected by the
management of records
4. what the implications are of FOI so far for good
practice in records management.
Research method
• Data collection: 22 semi-structured interviews with
27 officers responsible for FOI and/or records
management in 19 local authorities in London and
south east of England (county, unitary, city and
London borough)
• Data collection: a focus group and 11 interviews
with requestors
• Data analysis: NVIVO 7
Government policy context
• Modernising Government 1999
• e-government target of all government services
available electronically by 2005
• Local Government Act 1999 community
engagement
• Audit Commission review of e-government
implementation in England 2002
Literature review issues
• sustainability of e-government agenda: physical
(people, finance and technical infrastructure) &
non-physical resources (skill, plans and strategies)
• over-emphasis on ‘front-end’ systems (eg website)
• “It is easy to create a records management
policy…It is far harder to convince staff that they
should cease filing their information locally and
managing it according to their own ways and
should embrace new, shared ways of working”
Background
Amos et al. 2008. FOI 2000 and local government in 2007: The
experience of local authorities in England. London: Constitution Unit,
UCL.
Background
Amos et al. 2008. FOI 2000 and local government in 2007: The
experience of local authorities in England. London: Constitution Unit,
UCL.
Interpreting the impact
“It’s more high profile, but the actual way we do things
hasn’t changed”
“It’s probably made awareness of RM. You go round and
people realize there’s a need, but it’s just there’s never
enough time or money to actually get good RM in lots of
teams.”
“AS: So there hasn’t been much change in RM as a result
of FOI in this council?
X: There has been a change in so far as we have
brought in training and raised awareness”
“I mean what’s changed is the intention to address that I
think and to do so on a corporate basis”
Coping with FOI
“We haven’t had, or at least to my knowledge we haven’t
had something which is dependent upon version
control. It only needs one or two people who
understand the FOI game probably to cause havoc and
mayhem. Luckily we haven’t actually encountered
that… with journalists they will take what they’re given
because they’ve got a copy deadline to produce some
article”.
“At the moment we are relying a lot on trust and people
say ‘oh I wrote this, it is the only version’, which we
provide and send out, and we just don’t have the
resources to call their bluff on it.
Coping with FOI
“My guess is that the quality of what we are providing –
we might answer a request – but the quality of what we
are providing on the whole is not good because of RM.
If we had better RM the quality would be better because
you will be sure the documents you are providing will be
the latest one.”
An increasingly important role for RM?
“The other thing, in addition to what appears to be a broad
increase in the number of requests, however they are
logged, the complexity has increased… a lot more detailed
as well. “
Knowledge Management
“a lot is not stored in a records management document
manager. It is still stored on servers that are unique to
each directorate or unit or service so we have to chase
humans to get access to the information.”
Complexity of the Context
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Relative position of RM and FOI in the
organisation
Roles and responsibilities: electronic vs paper
Departmental perceptions of RM and FOI
E-government and technology
Data security
Organisation of employment
Space/Accommodation
Business efficiency
The impact of the UK Freedom of
Information Act on records
management
Dr Elizabeth Shepherd
(e.shepherd@ucl.ac.uk)
Dr Alice Stevenson
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/infostudies/research/icarus/foi-impact/