Government departments may be starting to get more open with the information they are publishing from Freedom of Information requests.
Both the Department for Transport and the Department for Culture Media and Sport have uploaded detailed spreadsheets of FOI requests that have received.
The spreadsheets detail requests where information has either fully, or in part, been disclosed to the requester and cover several months.
Almost all departments publish some FOI responses on their separate sections of Gov.uk. However, this is not mandatory and is often done in a hazard way. The Ministry of Defence regularly updates the information it has published under FOI.
The new approach, which appears to be an improved disclosure log system rather than the results of rather meta FOI requests, is a welcome move to improve visibility of departments responding to requests.
While not perfect it may prove less of a burden for departments than uploading all responses.
A message posted by the departments, indicating it is more of a process decision than from an FOI, says that help will be given to those who seek old responses.
“This is a list of responses to FOI and EIR requests where some or all of the requested information was disclosed to the applicant,” the message says.
“This list covers responses completed by DfT between July and September 2015.
“To see a response from the list, please email the response reference number to foi-advice-team-dft@dft.gsi.gov.uk”.