Information commissioners around the world face serious budgetary constraints and expect higher workloads, according the first survey of commissioners.
“In terms of their capacity to deal with current and projected workloads, 77% of Commissioners believe that their financial and staff resources, are ‘insufficient ‘(58%) or ‘not at all sufficient’ (19%),” according to the report on the survey.
The commissioners surveyed expect more appeals in 2013. “Overall 76% of Commissioners expect the number of appeals which they will receive this year (2013) to ‘increase substantially ‘(27%) or ‘slightly’ (49%). None expect the number to decline.”The survey, the first of its kind, covers a variety of topics. It was conducted by the Centre for Freedom of Information, based in at the University of Dundee in Scotland. Kevin Dunion, Executive Director of the Centre, who was formerly the Scottish Information Commissioner. It is part of an effort to establish an international exchange network for information commissioners.
The reported time taken to deal with appeals varies significantly, according to the report. “The shortest reported average time taken to dispose of cases is 3 days; the longest time is 380 days.”
Commissioners were also asked if they were legally qualified, in the light of a decision by the Supreme Court of India requiring chief commissioners there to be retired judges. “Just over half (51.5%) of Commissioners who responded were said to be qualified lawyers or judges (the distinction was not made in the question or response); 48.5% are not legally qualified,” the report summarizes.
In under half of the countries involved in the survey (45%) there is no requirement regarding the qualifications or experience of those appointed as commissioners.
Also examined was whether commissioners reviewing an appeal regularly agencies to provide the information which has been withheld from the requester. More than half (51.5%) said that they “always” do so, with a further 36.4% indicating that they “usually” do so.
The overwhelming majority (94%) of respondents usually publish their decisions either because they are required to do so by law or because they choose to do so as a matter of practice.
Commissioners were divided on the topic of whether to share a draft decision or preliminary conclusion with the authority and/or requester prior to issuing a final determination. “A majority (57.6%) do not do so, but nearly 40% do share with both parties and a further 3% make a draft available to the authority only.”
A fuller analysis of the survey is available at http://www.centrefoi.org.uk/
The responses were received between Feb. 6 and March 24, 2013.
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