Techies hamstrung by bosses on Freedom of Information

The hugely significant Freedom of Information Act will come into force on 1 January 2005, requiring all government bodies to comply with its terms - but, according to new research, only two in ten will do.

A survey of senior government IT execs by change management consultancy Partners for Change found that 78 per cent of government bodies won't be able to comply with one of the Act's main provisions, which states that government agencies will have to answer any query from the public within 21 days.

Joan Fenelly, consultant at Partners for Change, said that some government bodies have been banking on not being punished even if they do miss the deadline.

Government bodies "are thinking 'the Information Commissioner won't come down too hard as long as we show we're doing something'... however feeble", she said. Fenelly added that she had yet to see many organisations making an effort. "There's large scale non-compliance. Even in the context of being two and a half months away, I don't see much of a flurry of activity."

Should government bodies fail to comply, they could face fines and be taken to court by the public.

Despite the mammoth task of dragging up data on everything from recycling to council tax to planning applications, all within a short time frame - coupled with the potential penalties - many government IT departments don't feel they're being supported by non-technical staff.

The survey found that 60 per cent of the government IT execs felt that those outside of the IT department didn't understand what the act would mean for them and weren't supporting their technical staff in making sure the Act's provisions were met.

With systems old and new, as well as a diverse mix of storage, most of the government bodies feel the biggest problem facing them is changing their business processes rather than updating their hardware - 94 per cent of the execs said working practices were more of a hold up than the IT itself.

Fenelly said: "The responsibility for the Freedom of Information Act is delivered four, five, six levels down the organisation - the individual is often capable in their own right but doesn’t have clout in the organisation" to get changes implemented.

While public sector bodies merrily ignore the problem or crack on with compliance, it seems the public is still unaware.

According to research carried out on behalf of the Scottish Information Commissioner, only one in three people know they'll be granted extra rights to information from next year.