In the time since I last blogged a new era has dawned, the era of transparency. The smoke filled rooms have been cleared, the windows open and the sun allowed to shine on the business of Government so you, the citizen, can hold elected representatives to account.
The rhetoric from the Government is astounding. The Number 10 website proudly announces “we want to be the most open and transparent government in the world”, Francis Maude has heralded the need to make transparency “an integral part of government business”, Nick Clegg has promised to extend FOI powers.
Of course, a lot of this is simply rhetoric – data is published without any context and is rendered almost entirely meaningless (see Richard Osley on the difficulty of armchair auditing).
But the information is there, to follow up through FOI or phonecalls. The number of meetings are published and there for the citizen to pursue.
Like, if you were to, say, FOI the minutes of published meetings between Government advisers and banks.
Say this list – if you wanted to know the details of the meeting between Sir Jon Cunliffe, the Prime Minister’s Adviser on Europe and Global issues and Goldman Sachs in November 2011, after the Cabinet Office published a list of meetings, you would email the Cabinet Office and FOI the minutes.
Because surely if the meeting is on the public record, a public record of what happened at the meeting exists.
But no. I just received this from the Cabinet Office: “I am writing to advise you that following a search of our paper and electronic records, I have established that we do not hold the information you requested.”
I have emailed them back to ask who holds the information – and this could be my fault for assuming if the Cabinet Office publishes lists of meetings, then they hold the minutes too. But FOI’ing minutes of meetings published by other departments has always worked before. Will update with more details as and when I get them.
Dina Rickman
