29 April 2022

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Warning: Graphic Content

8 min readApr 29, 2022

Relight my FOIA

The Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee (PACAC) has this morning published its report into the Cabinet Office’s Freedom of Information Clearing House. (I gave evidence back in the autumn.)

It’s all going very well, Freedom of Information edition: a chart from IfG showing the rise in information being withheld, from https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/explainers/freedom-of-information

‘Damning’ would be a fair description. It’s concerned at the lack of transparency around the Clearing House and its record keeping, that the Cabinet Office declined an offer from the ICO to review the situation and then promised its own internal review (which has not yet happened and which Cabinet Office scrambled to announce details of yesterday to pre-empt the report), that the lead department on FOI — which should be held to a higher standard — has such a poor record, and that the alignment between the resourcing of the ICO and policy on FOI is badly aligned (split as it is between DCMS and Cabinet Office).

Apart from that…

Just a few weeks before the latest Open Government Week, this is yet another sign of how badly the UK — which still trumpets its legacy credentials as an open government leader — has fallen back.

Blind data

As per last week’s reports that we do indeed have a data protection bill to look forward to in the Queen’s Speech… The European Scrutiny Committee has now published a transcript of an appearance by Jacob Rees-Mogg, minister for government efficiency and Brexit opportunities (or the ‘minister for oxymorons’ as one friend calls him), which includes some comments on the bill.

He praises the report by the Taskforce on Innovation, Growth and Regulatory Reform — a group of former and current Tory ministers — as being ‘very good on AI and data usages’. Among other things, TIGRR tries to bounce the government into abolishing article 22 of GDPR, which says individuals should have the right not to be subject to decisions based solely on automated processes. This was raised (alongside some more considered discussion) in the government’s data protection consultation; DCMS officials have since suggested that abolishing article 22 is off the table. Rees-Mogg’s experience as an MP also caused him to conclude that current data protection rules seem to him ‘extraordinarily onerous’.

Something I’m finding a bit surprising, if not quite extraordinary, is the lack of coverage about the forthcoming bill, Politico aside. There’s this useful thread from Robert Bateman, but I can’t say I’ve noticed anything else. What have I missed?

Initial interest

Remember how the CDDO was created in place of the CDO (and indeed CDO) promised by the NDS, before appointing an interim CDO after all? You can now apply for the job — chief data officer, for those of you not fluent in government’s C reprogramming language — on a permanent basis.

Events to come

Join me on Tuesday, in person or online, when I’ll be chairing the Royal Statistical Society’s latest Covid-19 evidence session, on the statistical resources available to government during the pandemic. It’s a great line-up.
We also have a great line-up for a Data Bites defence and cyber special on Wednesday — join me at the IfG.
The next mySociety Civic Tech Surgery — on how civic tech organisations can improve their storytelling and reach — is happening on Thursday 12 May. Sign up now.
The Orwell Festival of Political Writing (I’m a trustee of the Orwell Foundation) has announced some new events.
And I will be plugging the New Tottenham Singers’ delayed 10th anniversary concert — Mozart’s Requiem! A world premiere! (Not a world premiere of Mozart’s Requiem, obviously!) — every week between now and 18 June. Come if you can, or please donate the cost of a ticket so we can survive beyond the concert if you’re able.