Almost two-thirds of information commissioners around the world (63%) think more private bodies in their countries should be covered by the national freedom of information law.
The results are reported in the third “International Survey of Information Commissioners,” conducted by the Centre for Freedom of Information, University of Dundee, Scotland. Responses were provided by 53 commissioners or ombudsman in 33 countries.
Only 25% said that all private bodies and nongovernmental organizations carrying out public functions or receiving public funds are already subject to the access to information law. Twelve percent of those surveyed disagree d that such groups should be covered.
The report includes examples of provisions from existing laws.
Compliance Varies With Clout
Compliance with the orders of information commissioners worldwide varies with their clout, according to the survey.
Overall, 70% of those responding said that authorities “always” comply with their decisions or compliance occurs in “a significant majority” of cases.
The level of compliance was higher, 85 percent, where commissioners can order disclosure or otherwise require compliance with their decisions. By contrast, none of the commissioners who can only make recommendations reported that their decisions were always complied with, and only 45% said that compliance occurs in a significant majority of cases.
Other Results
– Social Media “Commissioners have widely varying views as to whether requests made using social media can ever be regarded as valid.” The findings showed that 35% felt that generally such requests would be valid; 30% said they could never be valid. “Many Commissioners had not yet had to deal with appeals where requests made by social media were rejected, which perhaps explains why 25% said they did not know if they were valid or not.”
– Budgets Half expected their budgets to remain the same, with a quarter expecting increases and another quarter expecting decreases. However, the percentage of commissioners reporting that their budgets were sufficient rose from 12.5% when the same question was asked last year to 37.5% this year.
– Request Levels “Most Commissioners expect the number of appeals/complaints which they receive this year to increase.”
-Portals About 45% reported that requests can be made online through portals operated by the commission and the government.
The survey also covers topics including comparative investigatory powers, the numbers of appeals and vexatious requests.
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