Video: Journalism, Government and the FOI Act

... "So in the future I'll be making sure that there is nothing for them to get at. Part of our problem is that we have had a lot of internal material and our record keeping has been good. But I've told my team to make sure in future we minimise what we write down and minimise what we keep. So we'll be getting rid of emails quickly and we won't worry if the record is incomplete, so long as it contains nothing we wouldn't want to see released. We just can't afford the time FOI is taking up - and if you don't have the information then it can't be released. I am not saying my attitude is right but, given the pressures we are under, I think it's the only way we can cope" ...

This is a quote in a UCL (University College London) report on Understanding the Formulation and Development of Government Policy in the Context of FOI (Freedom of Information Act).

Although it's anonymous, we do know it comes from a senior civil servant. We don't know his name, or the government department in which he works, but it does go some way to illustrate the view of BBC Radio 4 The World Tonight's Jeremy Hayes. He believes we are at the high point of the FOI Act 2000 and from now on getting the information journalists want is going to become more and more difficult.

Jeremy was speaking at a BBC Journalism Programme lunchtime seminar, where he outlined his recent paper A Shock to the System: Journalism, Government and the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Jeremy and the BBC's FOI expert, Martin Rosenbaum, explored a whole range of issues surrounding the Act - who's using it, how they're using it and why some requests are more successful than others.