http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/
pa/ld199900/ldbills/030/2000030.htm

Response on behalf of The Library Association
February 2000

1. Introduction

The Library Association is concerned about the significant reduction in the public right of access to information held by local authorities in England and Wales which will arise from certain provisions in the Local Government Bill.

2. Background

2.1 The Library Association is the Chartered professional body for librarians and information managers and represents some 26,000 members drawn from the whole spectrum of the economy - including business; industry; the health and voluntary sectors; central and local government and public library services.

Among the purposes of the Association set out in its Royal Charter are:

• To scrutinise any legislation affecting the provision of library and information services and to promote such further legislation as may be considered necessary to this end.
• To promote and encourage the maintenance of adequate and appropriate provision of library and information services of various kinds throughout the United Kingdom, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man.

2.2 The Library Association attaches a high value to freedom of information which is considered to be a core responsibility of its members. The Association believes that the library and information profession has a unique part to play in the free access to information.

The Association's Policy on Information Access states that:

"The right of access to information is essential for a civilised society. If citizens are to exercise their democratic rights, and to make information choices, they must have access to political, social, scientific and economic information. If our culture is to thrive and to grow, people need access to the widest range of ideas, information and images."

The Library Association's Code of Professional Conduct binds its members to uphold its policy on access to information.

3. Current provisions for access to information

The current provisions for access by the public to information published by local authorities are contained in the Local Government Act 1972 and the Local Government (Access to Information) Act 1985.

This legislation lays down that meetings of a local authority council, its committees and sub-committees shall be open to the public unless matters defined as 'confidential' or 'exempt' is to be discussed. In the case of exempt information the council may hold the meeting in public at its discretion. In either case there is a requirement to publish minutes of a closed meeting which give 'a reasonable, fair and coherent' record of the proceedings.

Arising from this entitlement to public access to meetings there is a duty on local authorities to publish agendas, minutes and papers of those meetings which are held in public, and to make these available for public inspection three clear days before the meeting.

The entitlement to papers is dependent on the meeting being open to the public. There is no right of access to information about matters which have not gone to a committee for decision or matters which have been delegated to an officer.

4. Loss of rights under the draft Local Government Bill

The current right of access to information therefore falls far short of the type of freedom of information provision which we would like to see. However, it seems that even this modest provision may be lost under the new arrangements for local authority executives proposed in Part II of the Local Government Bill.

According to the Explanatory Notes to the bill :

"The objective of this policy is to deliver greater efficiency, transparency and accountability of local authorities. Separation of the executive is intended to ensure that decisions can be taken more quickly and efficiently than in the existing committee system, that the individuals responsible for decision-making can be more readily identified by the public, and that those decision makers can be held to account in public by overview and scrutiny committees."

The Library Association welcomes this policy.

However, the new decision making framework proposed in Part II will ensure that a great many decisions which were formerly made in committees will now be made by elected mayors, or council leaders, working with an executive. These new executives will not be required to meet in public. Existing rights to information, which arise from the right to attend public meeting, will therefore be lost.

The full local authority council will still meet in public, but a very significant number of decisions will now be taken outside of the formal council structure. Scrutiny committees may meet in public, but they will only be charged with holding the executive to account after decisions have been made. While this is commendable, it is very different from the opportunity to influence decisions before they are made.

5. Freedom of Information bill

Local authorities will be required to comply with the Freedom of Information Act. However, the draft Freedom of Information bill currently under consideration in the House of Commons will not remedy the limitations in the draft Local Government bill.

In particular, the Freedom of Information bill does not give the Information Commissioner the power to order the disclosure of 'exempt' information in the public interest. The local authority itself will decide, at its own discretion and without account to any other body, whether to agree disclosure. Bearing in mind the sweeping nature of the class exemptions proposed in the Freedom of Information bill this represents a very significant weakness.

Moreover, the draft Freedom of Information bill allows authorities to withhold information from the public if disclosure might prejudice the conduct of public affairs, or prejudice the commercial interests of any person including the authority. Taken together these two exemptions could apply to large swathes of information relating to the work of a local authority.

The Library Association is not confident that the Freedom of Information bill will remedy the loss of rights to information under the draft Local Government bill.

6. Recommendations

The Library Association would like to recommend changes to the Local Government bill which would ensure that:

• Agendas and papers of all formal meetings, including those of the new executive decision making structures, be published in advance.
• That the period of availability for such papers be extended from three to five clear days. The current three day rule has proved insufficient to allow members of the public to contribute to a forthcoming decision.
• That, in support of modernising government, local authorities be required to make all such papers available on their web sites. This will be particularly beneficial as the People's Network begins to provide public access to the Web in all public libraries.
• That a record be kept of the decision making process, whether public or in camera, including the reasons for such decisions and the background papers which relate to those decisions. An adequate audit trail is crucial to open and transparent decision making.

The Library Association is aware of the Government's desire to make the decision-making structures within local authorities more transparent and to make the committee structures of authorities more effective, thus freeing up the time of councillors to better represent their communities. However, we believe that the Local Government bill will be likely to work against this laudable intention unless it is modified in the way in which we have outlined.

The Library Association
February 2000