Transparency saves money, says information commissioner

Christopher Graham said that public sector organisations are wasting money fighting unnecessary Freedom of Information cases and are risking large fines from poor data protection. On the former, he said that the Cabinet Office went through all the possible stages of review in a failed attempt to prevent the publication of documents relating to the Westland affair of the 1980s, which had been requested by the BBC under Freedom of Information. The Cabinet Office's refusal was reversed by both the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) and the Information Tribunal, before the Cabinet Office gave in – but contained little in the way of news, and only appeared on a BBC journalist's blog. "I've no idea of the cost," Graham told the National Association of Data Protection Officer's annual conference in London on 10 November, but it would include spending on lawyers, staff time at the Cabinet Office, BBC and ICO. "All that was spent to stop the publication of something which was totally innocuous." He added that organisations increase interest in material when they try to prevent publication. "There's nothing so interesting as what you're not allowed to know," said Graham, a former BBC journalist. "Hit them with the boring facts." However, while organisations might save money on fighting the release of such documents, he added that they should be wary of trying to save on protection of personal data. The ICO now has the ability to impose fines of up to £500,000, and Graham repeated his pledge that the first such fine will be made this month. "That should be a wake-up call for everybody," he said of the potential for fines, adding that public sector organisations could also not afford the reputational damage a serious loss of personal data could produce. "Even the public sector has brands. If you lose confidence as a local council or a department, that's very bad news." "I'm putting arguments to put to your colleagues when they say, 'you're back office, not front line'," he added. Graham said that spending on FoI regulation will be cut, as it is funded by government grant. He added that the ICO has increased the speed of its decision making in this area since he took the job, although in many cases it would make more sense for public authorities not to fight the release of data: "Much better to bite the bullet and publish," he said.