Reviewed by: Ibrahim Hasan
Author: Peter Carey and Robin Hopkins
Publisher: Law Society Publishing
Price: £89.95

Not a week passes without the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FoI) or information gathered using the FoI right of access appearing in the media.

The third edition of this book explains FoI and its developments clearly and concisely. Chapters 4 and 5 are particularly useful as they not only explain the various exemptions from the right of access in detail, but do so by reference to the leading decisions of the commissioner and the tribunal. This is the first book that I have found which does this adequately. Having said that, more could have been written about the exemptions, which cause much difficulty and debate among public sector professionals.

The Handbook will not just appeal to public sector information professionals. There are separate chapters on implications for the private sector and FoI and the media. There is still much confusion between where a request falls to be considered under FoI and where the Data Protection Act 1998 applies. I am glad to see that a whole chapter is devoted to this subject.

A brief reference is made in the book to the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012, which makes changes to the FoI regime, particularly in relation to the release and reuse of datasets. After the writing of this book, the government began an online consultation about a new set of guidance to accompany the dataset provisions (expected to come into force in April). This includes a new Code of Practice, which will sit alongside the existing Section 45 Code of Practice under FoI. The new code will also set out the licensing framework which public authorities must use when making copyright material within datasets available for reuse. No doubt the next edition of this book will have more to say about this important subject.

This book is written by a team of lawyers from the private sector. While they are experts in their field, it would have been useful to have some input from public sector information governance professionals in order to give a practical perspective on some of the issues addressed.

That said, I would recommend this book to anyone who wants a more in-depth understanding of FoI. It is also a worthwhile base text for anyone doing a formal qualification in FoI – for example, the ISEB Certificate in Freedom of Information.

Ibrahim Hasan is a solicitor and director of Act Now Training

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