Right to Information

Monitoring and Evaluation

To ensure that the law is achieving the aims endorsed by the Government, the implementation of the Act should be supported by an effective ongoing monitoring and evaluation system. This will enable implementation efforts to be assessed, reviewed and improved.

Monitoring
Annual Reports
Evaluation

Monitoring

The monitoring information collected should be proactively disclosed by the government on its website, at a minimum, the information should be collated by each public body at the end of each month and sent to the Government Department responsible for overall implementation of the Act.

• UK Government Actuary Department (2005) Access to Information Monitor, software developed to help monitor information requests, appeals and includes additional features such as guidance on determining the public interest etc.
• UK Government (current) FOI Monitoring Database, replicable database created to register and track applications and appeals made under the FOI Act UK. With small adjustments it could be used in other jurisdictions. (If the database does not open properly, click on "FOIA Monitor")
• UK Department of Constitutional Affairs (2003) Computer systems for aiding the management and monitoring of requests.



• Professor Alisadair Roberts (current) Searchable database of access requests submitted under Canadian ATI Act. The information in the Searchable Canadian Database was entered by Federal Canadian Institutions into the Coordination of Access to Information Requests System (CAIRS), a software program maintained by the Department of Public Works. Every month, reports from the CAIRS database are obtained from Treasury Board Secretariat by Professor Alisadair Roberts via an Access to Information Act request.
• Canadian Department of Public Works and Government Services (2005) Sample of Monthly RTI Requests Report.



• Delhi Government (2005) Status Report on Applications under the Delhi Right to Information Act, upto May 2005.



• UK Department for Constitutional Affairs (2005) First Quarterly Report on Implementation of the FOIA 2000. The report contains statistics on implementation of the Act across the Central Government from January- March 2005.

Annual Reporting

In accordance with best practice, at the end of the year, all of the statistics collected should be collated into an Annual RTI Report. Almost every RTI law requires some form of Annual Report to be produced and tabled in Parliament and/or put on government websites, made available in hard copy and disseminated as widely as possible.

• Canadian Treasury Board Secretariat (current) Guidelines on Producing Annual and Statistical Reports on The Access to Information Act.
• Canadian Treasury Board Secretariat (current) Guidance on Contents of Annual Report (Annex A to above Guidelines).
• Canadian Treasury Board Secretariat (current) Guidance on Classification of Statistics Collected for Annual Report (Annex C to above Guidelines).



• Canadian Information Commissioner (2003-2004) Annual Report, full text example of an annual report produced by the Federal Information Commissioner.
• Canadian Information Commissioner (2003-2004) Annual Report: Chapter II - Overview of Report Cards System, an innovation of the Federal Commissioner whereby he monitors the performance of Departments in respecting the response deadlines and gives the a "grade" from A-F according to their timeliness.
• Queensland Information Commissioner (2003-2004) Annual Report, full text example of an annual report produced by the State Information Commissioner.

Evaluation

• Australian National Audit Office (2004) Audit Report on Administration of Freedom of Information Requests, audit of administrative processes used by agencies to support processing of FOI requests and other requirements of the FOI Act.
• Rick Snell (2001) "Administrative compliance - evaluating the effectiveness of freedom of information", FOI Review 93.
• Rick Snell (1999) "Administrative Compliance and Freedom of Information in Three Jurisdictions: Australia, Canada and New Zealand".
• Western Australian Information Commissioner (1998) FOI Standards and Performance Measures.
• Canadian Information Commissioner (1994) Access to Information: A Critical Review.