Look, no dabs
Bergmans Research is one political consultancy offering what it 'a confidential FoI service - we'll ask the questions for you that you can't, without your "fingerprint" being evident.'
This quote managed to make it onto the front page of a disapproving last Thursday.
But what surprises me is not that such services exist (and there are others, including some legal firms, who also make fingerprint-free FOI requests), but that there aren't more of them. It's a big business in the US, where many freedom of information requests are commercial.
A new decision from the Information Commissioner may in fact prompt more such requests. The ICO has Mid Suffolk District Council to disclose a contract, including financial details, with a company which it uses to maintain a leisure centre.
The financial parts of contracts can be sensitive territory for public authorities. The more that they become publicly available, the more we can expect to see competitors seeking copies of them, and through 'fingerprint-free' FOI services so as not to irritate the authority which is their potential customer.
The Labour MP Tony Wright, chairman of the Public Administration Select Committee, told the Independent '... if lobbying companies are putting in FOI requests to conceal the identity of their clients, then these are issues of real concern that need attention.'
But if FOI really is applicant-blind, and disclosure to one is to be treated as disclosure to all, does it really matter?
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