Protection of Freedoms Act 2012

The Protection of Freedoms Bill is trundling through Parliament at present.

The main points for FOI purposes:

• Requirement for datasets to be made available in a reusable form
• Requirement to release Crown datasets under a specified licence
• Extension to FOIA Section 6 to cover companies jointly-owned by several public authorities
• Slightly fewer restrictions on the actions of the Information Commissioner

Section 6 Extension

As introduced, clause 93 of the Bill would amend FOIA Section 6 to read:

6. Publicly-owned companies.

(1) A company is a “publicly-owned company” for the purposes of section 3(1)(b) if—

(a) it is wholly owned by the Crown,

(b) it is wholly owned by the wider public sector, or

(c) it is wholly owned by the Crown and the wider public sector.

(2) For the purposes of this section—

(a) a company is wholly owned by the Crown if, and only if, every member is a person falling within sub-paragraph (i) or (ii)—

(i) a Minister of the Crown, government department or company wholly owned by the Crown, or

(ii) a person acting on behalf of a Minister of the Crown, government department or company wholly owned by the Crown,

(b) a company is wholly owned by the wider public sector if, and only if, every member is a person falling within sub-paragraph (i) or (ii)—

(i) a relevant public authority or a company wholly owned by the wider public sector, or

(ii) a person acting on behalf of a relevant public authority or of a company wholly owned by the wider public sector, and

(c) a company is wholly owned by the Crown and the wider public sector if, and only if, condition A, B or C is met.

(2A) In subsection (2)(c)—

(a) condition A is met if—

(i) at least one member is a person falling within subsection (2)(a)(i) or (ii),

(ii) at least one member is a person falling within subsection (2)(b)(i) or (ii), and

(iii) every member is a person falling within subsection (2)(a)(i) or (ii) or (b)(i) or (ii),

(b) condition B is met if—

(i) at least one member is a person falling within subsection (2)(a)(i) or (ii) or (b)(i) or (ii),

(ii) at least one member is a company wholly owned by the Crown and the wider public sector, and

(iii) every member is a person falling within subsection (2)(a)(i) or (ii) or (b)(i) or (ii) or a company wholly owned by the Crown and the wider public sector, and

(c) condition C is met if every member is a company wholly owned by the Crown and the wider public sector.

(3) In this section—

“company” includes any body corporate;

“Minister of the Crown” includes a Northern Ireland Minister.

“relevant public authority” means any public authority listed in Schedule 1 other than—

(a) a government department, or

(b) any authority which is listed only in relation to particular information.

This is a truly horrible definition, but in essence it defines as a publicly-owned company any corporation whose members each of of its members belongs to one of the following categories:

• Ministers of the Crown
• government departments
• Schedule 1 public authorities
• (other) publicly-owned companies, in any combination.

A single non-public sector shareholder would be enough to prevent a company meeting this definition.