FOI boosts local government transparency but yet to affect leadership: UCL

Freedom of information has increased transparency but is yet to have a significant impact upon how local government works, research by the Constitution Unit at University College London has found.

In a major report, Town Hall Transparency? The Impact of The Freedom of Information Act 2000 on Local Government in England, the Constitution Unit warned that the combination of cuts and rising FOI request numbers could leave FOI officers unable to cope “as many feel they are now at capacity or over-capacity”.

UCL revealed last month that FOI requests to councils in England had increased fourfold from around 60,000 in 2005 to nearly 200,000 in 2010. This was largely a result of increased awareness and high-profile cases such as MPs’ expenses.

Its latest report predicted that FOI use could be increased by the government’s localism agenda, the Big Society, and increased interest in service performance.

The report said FOI had increased transparency but only as an ‘add-on’ to existing mechanisms. “Local government was already very open,” it acknowledged.

The Constitution Unit also suggested that – despite high profile stories on issues such as senior salaries – leadership had not changed due to FOI. Service delivery had been largely unaffected until now as requests were rarely made about it.

It added that FOI had not improved the quality of local authority decision-making “but a chilling effect can be seen in a few politically sensitive cases”.

The researchers argued that FOI had increased accountability at local level, “but in ways officials and politicians don’t always see”. This could be part of building up a ‘bigger picture’ or alongside other mechanisms such as the local media, consultations and campaigns by NGOs.

The report suggested that all local authorities were “open but to different degrees”. Key factors in how FOI impacts on an authority were levels of political support, the resources made available and the local situation.

The main area of tension identified by the report was the use of FOI by the media and businesses.

“National media reporting of FOI stories has been largely negative (e.g. on salaries, wasting money),” the report said. “The local and regional press is variable in terms of use, angle and topic." Some authorities had experienced “heavy and aggressive” use of FOI by the media, while others experienced none. However, the report said FOI rarely led to the obtaining of a ‘smoking gun’ except in a handful of high profile cases.

The use of FOI by a wide range of businesses at a local level was described as “heavy” by the report.

The research meanwhile revealed a mixed response to the coalition government’s demand that local authorities publicly disclose all public spending over £500.

Use of this data had been “uneven”, the report said. “Some authorities have had a great deal of interest from the local press and some virtually none. It does not appear to have had an impact on FOI request numbers.”

Other findings from the report included:

• Support for openness from senior figures allowed FOI officers to improve internal co-operation, to innovate and mitigate internal resistance. “By contrast, nervousness or misunderstanding may lead to defensiveness and a lack of internal cooperation”
• FOI had increased proactive disclosure, “despite the failure of the Act’s publication schemes”, and helped with the development of a more open culture
• FOI had increased public understanding of decision-making “in a ‘picture building’ way at a very low level”. The authors pointed out that few people were interested in local government unless there is controversy, such as the closure of an amenity
• FOI had not increased or decreased trust in local government. A number of officials felt levels of trust depended more on authority performance and ‘community visibility’
• High levels of activism from local groups or long running controversial issues will often involve FOI
• Increased use of contracting out could increase problems of information sharing with private organisations working on behalf of local authorities
• Authorities had varied experiences with the private bodies they work with passing information in response to requests. “Some of the more ‘public facing’ ones are happy to share information while others are nervous and resistant”
• FOI worked with the continuing development of new websites and applications such as Openly Local or hyper local websites.

The authors said: “Underneath the media headlines, FOI is being used more quietly, day-to-day, by the public to find out about things that matter to them: allotments, parking, speed bumps etc. Businesses are using it to keep one step ahead of the competition and national and local pressure groups are making FOI requests on all sorts of topics from zoo licences to libraries.”

Dr Ben Worthy, who led the Constitution Unit's research, added: “The concern for the future is that while extra power is given to local government, resources will be taken away. FOI teams will suffer as they face rising requests but fewer staff.”

He added: “FOI will work with online innovations and other mechanisms of local accountability as people search for information of use to their everyday lives.”

A copy of the report can be downloaded here.

Philip Hoult