Canal & River Trust and FOIA

DESPITE the general apathy surrounding British Waterways transition to the Canal & River Trust, some will be aware that transition trustees have asked to be exempt from the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), writes Allan Richards.

Surprisingly, the 'some' does not include the Waterways Minister who seemed unaware of this 'U-turn on Freedom of Information Act'—narrowboatworld 2/11/2011, and made a commitment that Canal & River Trust would be subject to Freedom of Information Act, which he then had to retract.

National Association of Boat Owners

One of the key points of the Boaters Manifesto 'Led up the towpath?'—narrowboatworld 14/11/2011, was that Canal & River Trust must ensure it is kept under the umbrella of the Freedom of Information Act.

The National Association of Boat Owners has already supported that viewpoint in its response to the second consultation on the new waterways charity saying there is considerable mistrust on the part of stakeholders and drawing attention to the website whatdotheyknow.com as evidence of the need for this important protection. The association further points out that cost of complying with the Act is not an issue.

Charity world concern

The latest and, perhaps, only public utterance from the trustees on the matter is from John Dodwell who says 'At one level, the charity world is worried that if the Act applies to this Trust, then it will affect other charities; not being Government agencies, charities are not generally covered by the Act. At another level, the Trust would anyway follow closely the spirit of the Act'.

Not really a compelling reason is it?

Poor record

It is not as if British Waterways already has a good record on openness and accountability. Once again, information commissioners have had to write to them reminding them that they are breaking the law by not responding to Freedom of Information Act requests and giving them ten days in which to do so. At least five complaints are known to be outstanding.

Indeed, one of those complaints is that British Waterways has not responded to a request for minutes of meetings of the transition trustees to be made publically available via whatdotheyknow.com. This is exactly the sort of information which should be proactively published under the Freedom of Information Act anyway.

Witheld

How can trustees expect us to believe that they will put policies in place that will 'follow closely the spirit of the Act', and adhere to them when they are not following the actual requirements of the Act now. Do they know this information has been requested? If so, why is it being withheld?

Perhaps we should call them mis-trustees!