Freedom of Information and Records Management in the UK: What has been the Impact?

摘要

This article considers how the implementation of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act affected records management services in public bodies in the UK to the end of 2005. In particular, it reports on two pieces of research from the School of Library, Archive and Information Studies at University College London. The first study, undertaken in the summer of 2004 before FOI came fully into force, used the model action plan framework to assess five key aspects of preparedness in four case study organisations. The second study, carried out over the summer of 2005, sought to discover how well prepared public-sector bodies actually were in the first six months of the FOI Act and how implementation affected archives and records management services. The article draws some conclusions about the links between FOI and records management, reflecting on past experience, and suggests some future research questions.