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Freedom of Information Requests
Added 4 October 2006
This guide has been updated (June 2008). Click here for the new version.
MPs have recently been receiving aggressively-worded emails implying that they are under an obligation to provide answers to questions "under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act:"; this is not correct.
It is becoming increasingly common for Members of Parliament to receive requests for information about their activities, under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. However, what most people don't realise is that MPs aren't actually covered by the Act, and MPs are not obliged to respond to such requests, regardless of how forcefully the enquirer phrases them.
The Freedom of Information Act (FoI) only covers public bodies, not individuals, and Members of Parliament are not classed as 'public bodies' for the purpose of the Act. Therefore, anything held in the Register of Members' Interests is covered by the Act, but requests made directly to the MP are not.
The House of Commons Library has a very useful Standard Note: 'Freedom of Information' which goes into further detail about what is, and is not covered by the Act.
In a recently published decision the Information Commissioner confirmed that MPs are not subject to the FOI. He states 'The Commissioner recognises that MPs as individuals are not included in Schedule I of the Act and therefore are not covered by the Act' (see paragraph 4.11, at http://www.ico.gov.uk/upload/documents/decisionnotices/2006/decision_notice_fs50073128.pdf).
You may also find helpful a judgment from the Information Commissioner about Members using constituents information when responding to their queries. Click here.
All Standard Notes are in Adobe Acrobat PDF format, so you will need to Adobe Reader in order to access it. If you do not have Adobe Reader, you can download it for free, following the link in the right hand column of this page.
