Freedom of information act.

There has been concerns raised regarding the freedom of information act . Do we need it or can we live without it ?. Your thoughts.

I think I'm free to inform you that such an act in a small jurisdiction like Guernsey, whilst desirable in principle, would be expensive to administer as it would require the employment of at least one independent lawyer to advise and potentially decide whether it was in the public interest for any given piece of information to be released at a given time. [e.g. where this operates elsewhere it is not the case that everything is automatically available immediately, as this could effect litigation procedures, arbitrations, tenders, negotiated contracts and put taxpayers' money at increased risk, for example where directors or shareholders who are members of the public discovered what the government's policy was going to be on a particular issue]

The cost of running such legal advice and a quasi-judicial, independent process can be spread in a large jurisdiction, whereas here it would be very expensive. Notwithstanding this it may be a price the taxpayer considers worth paying, as has been the case elsewhere although it will, in a small place, always be open to accusation of bias eventually, and truly "independent" legal advisors are also hard to find and justify.

I dont see that the size of a place makes it more expensive, obviously a larger population would have more people requesting information, also I think guidlines would be in place that would mean certain docs were not available while a tender deadline has not passed or a court case is still on etc.