As we move closer to the moment when the Freedom of Information Act 2000 is brought fully into force on 1 January 2005, the Department for Constitutional Affairs has released an implementation roadmap for public bodies in England and Wales with guidance on exemptions, networks for FoI practitioners, recommendations on how IT systems should be adapted, and a campaign to increase awareness of the issues. The Act provides for a general right of access to information held by public authorities or by those providing services of a public nature and will apply to some 100,000 public authorities, including Central and Local Government, Parliament, the National Assembly for Wales, the armed forces, the police, hospitals, GPs and dentists, schools, publicly-funded museums, libraries and many others. There is concern that many public bodies are not fully prepared, and to pile on the pressure, an independent lobby group, The Campaign for Freedom of Information, has announced it is to launch a campaign later this year to test all local authorities on compliance with the Act by writing to every newspaper editor asking them to test out their local councils as soon as it comes into force.
