"A long way to go before States is considered open and transparent"

Monday 17 May 2021

An independent appeals body backed by the full force of the law is needed if the public is ever truly going to have Freedom of Information, according to the former Scrutiny boss, after his successors put forward a cost-free alternative to his committee's recommendations.

Cost and the unlikelihood of legislative priority have been given as reasons not to introduce a full Freedom of Information Law, with the Scrutiny Management Committee instead suggesting a model that would expect - but not compel - the States to answer valid requests for public information.

It is recommending that the current Code of Practice on Access to Public Information is "strengthened" expediently and at no cost through an independent appeals process, with Deputy Simon Fairclough the only one out of five members pushing against the current for an FoI Law. 

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Guernsey: Freedom of Information. Cost and the unlikelihood of either legislative or political priority have been given as reasons not to introduce a full Freedom of Information Law...

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— Bailiwick Express Guernsey (@BailiwickGsy) May 15, 2021

Pictured: Click HERE to listen to a podcast debate between Scrutiny President Yvonne Burford and Committee Member Simon Fairclough on the Committee's policy letter. 

Former Deputy Chris Green said an independent appeals body is "an interesting and practical solution" to the challenge of government withholding information. 

Given the financial circumstances, it is "perhaps unsurprising" that this is the favoured option, however the Advocate says only time will tell if it will have any bite.

"The review that I chaired into Freedom of information recommended an independent appeal body that was enshrined in legislation and headed up by a person of real authority, who would have the full force of the law behind them to strike down decisions to withhold information," said Advocate Green. 

"That sort of real authority is necessary if they are going to be telling a government committee that they need to release something in the public interest."

Pictured: Deputy Fairclough, a former political journalist, is the only Scrutiny member likely to vote for the creation of a full Freedom of Information when the committee's policy letter goes to the States in June. 

That remains Advocate Green's favoured option: "In matters of openness and transparency, I am something of a fundamentalist. We should always look at these issues from first principles," he said. 

"In my view, the States still has a long way to go before it will be considered open and transparent."

He said the island's management of the pandemic had restored some public trust in the States. That presents an opportunity to be seized upon, not squandered. 

"The States needs to capitalise on the trust it has rebuilt during its recent handling of Covid by becoming more open, not less," he said. "Ultimately, that will be the true test of these new arrangements."

Pictured: Former Scrutiny President Chris Green hopes the original recommendations of the SMC report from 2020 are implemented one day, "even if they have to await a more favourable fiscal and economic environment."