Tell you a secret…

Tuesday 06 January 2015

Government secrecy could be at an end following the introduction of a new Freedom of Information Law in Jersey.

The law came into force on 1 January, and gives Islanders legal rights to find out what the government is up to - that means that for the first time, the public have the right to ask questions and get answers from the police, the health service, the Education department or any other arm of government.

A similar law has been in force in the UK for ten years, and has been used by journalists and campaigners to expose a range of scandals, including MPs’ abuse of expenses schemes, the failure to investigate child sexual exploitation in Rochdale, and profligate spending by councils.

The law in Jersey includes a presumption of openness, which means that a department has to come up with a good reason from a written list of exemptions not to release any information that they are asked to publish.

But the crucial point is that the final decision on whether or not the information gets out won’t be made by the departments – an independent regulator, the Channel Islands Information Commission, will hear appeals, and can order that a department reverses their decision and has to give up the data that has been requested.

The law also makes it a criminal offence for anyone to destroy or tamper with a document or file that has been requested under the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law.

For more on how to make an application under the law, you can check out the full guide here.