Rights & responsibilities

Preparation and Planning

You will need to ensure there are enough copies of the Student Worksheets for each student and a sheet of A3 paper for each pair during Episode 1.
This lesson is supported by PowerPoint slides. In order to display the slides you will need access to ICT facilities and a projector.

About the MOD Topic

'Freedom of Information' is an important feature of a democracy as citizens need access to information to make informed decisions. Critics of the Act say there are too many exemptions to the information that can be requested. These exemptions present a good debate between the citizens' rights to information and the Government's responsibilities.

The Freedom of Information (FOI) Act came into full effect on 1st January 2005, for the first time giving individuals the statutory right to access all information held by Government departments and thousands of public bodies unless an exemption applies. People now have a right to information on the way decisions are made and public money is spent, by more than 100,000 public authorities, including Government departments, schools, NHS Trusts, police forces and local authorities. Under the Act, anyone, of any nationality, and living anywhere in the world, can make a written request for information, and expect a response within 20 working days. The 20 days are calculated from the day after a request is received. Public authorities must disclose properly requested information unless an exemption applies. In most cases, even where an exemption applies, they must still disclose information to the public if the public interest in disclosure is greater than the competing public interest in withholding the information.

The Ministry of Defence (MOD) is one of the top targets for requests under the FOI. They can also claim the award for the most unusual requests, including:
1. 'Have we done any experiments with aliens? Have aliens actually landed on Earth? There are thousands of questions I could ask, but what I really want to know is are there extraterrestrials on this planet? Please, please, please could you tell me if there are photos? Because I really need to know. I PROMISE to keep it a secret.'
2. 'Please can you tell me which kind of tea is drunk by the Ministry of Defence?'
3. 'Do you have or know where I could get a workshop manual for a Reynolds Boughton RB44 as I'm doing an overland trip from Sweden to Cape Town?'
4. 'Can I have an old Royal Navy recipe for SautŠed Kidneys and Curried Meatballs?'
5. 'Please could you send me a copy of the MOD's policy on alien abduction?'

An MOD FOI spokesperson said 'some of the requests we get are more eccentric than others, but we take each request very seriously and answer it as fully as we can.' The MOD receives by far the most FOI requests of all central Government departments with 11,110 requests received from when the Act came into force in 2005 until the end of 2007. With 73% of requests granted in full in 2007 and many more released in part, the MOD has one of the lowest levels of refusals of FOI requests in Government (13%).

In cases where the disclosure of information would not be in the public interest, the information may be withheld in part or in full. Listed below are some areas in which the Ministry of Defence might choose to withhold information from the public. The list is not exhaustive, nor is it suggested the information on any one of the topics listed will necessarily be exempt. Every request is considered on a case by case basis.

- Defence policy and strategy, military planning and defence intelligence.
- The size, shape, organisation, logistics, order of battle, state of readiness and training of the armed forces of the Crown.
- The actual or prospective deployment of those forces in the UK or overseas, including their operational orders, tactics and rules of engagement.
- The weapons, stores, transport or other equipment of those forces and the invention, development, production, technical specification and performance of such equipment and research relating to it.
- Plans and measures for the maintenance of essential supplies and services that are or would be needed in time of conflict.
- Plans for future military capabilities.
- Plans or options for the defence or reinforcement of a colony or another country.
- Analysis of the capability, state of readiness, performance of individual or combined units, their equipment or support structures; and arrangements for co-operation, collaboration, consultation or integration with the armed forces of other countries, whether on a bilateral basis or as part of a defence alliance or other international force.

Further Opportunities for Learning

Students could be asked to look at the list of top ten most requested areas of information on the MOD's FOI homepage (www.foi.mod.uk) and choose one which they would be interested to find out about. They could then write a short report outlining the background of the event in question (for example the grounding of HMS Triumph) and a summary of the information released in answer to the question.

Students could be asked to research the Freedom of Information policies in place in France and the USA and look at how they differ from the British policy.

Student worksheet answers

Download the teachers notes PDF to access the answers for this lesson.