Under the new plans, for information which costs public bodies less than £450 to retrieve and collate, there will be no charge. This is roughly equivalent to two and a half days of work, for free, according to the Department for Constitutional Affairs. Government departments will only be able to charge where costs rise above £600 (which equates to about three and a half days work).
Under a previous draft of the fees Regulations, a public authority could charge the full cost of copying, printing, postage and other disbursements plus up to 10% of "prescribed costs". The prescribed costs include the costs of, for example, locating and retrieving the information, including associated staff costs. However, the public authority was allowed to charge 100% of any prescribed costs above £550.
Announcing the changes, Constitutional Affairs Secretary Lord Falconer said:
"This Government introduced the legislation to change the culture of official information, and we believe it should be free. A fees structure which is simple to understand and easy to operate follows the spirit of the legislation.
"We don't want cost to deter people from asking about the policy discussions which influence their children's education, the way hospitals treat and care for their parents or the way police patrol their neighbourhoods."
From 1st January, people will have a right to information about 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.
Anyone, of any nationality, and living anywhere in the world, will be able to make a written request for information, and expect a response within 20 working days.
Lord Falconer said:
"We have always maintained that the majority of costs arising from this legislation should be met by the public purse. But authorities will have the option either to charge the full cost of the more complicated and time-consuming requests which take longer to research and edit, or to not carry them out on cost grounds."
Material which could be released in response to requests covers all recorded information and includes paper files, computer files, internal e-mails, audio and video recordings, brochures and photographs.
The legislation is designed to strike a balance between people's right to know, and the need for Government to be able to govern effectively and to achieve this there are exemptions to cover areas such as defence, national security, commercial confidentiality and personal data.
Lord Falconer said:
"The exemptions will be used where it is in the public interest to do so, but they are not there as a smoke screen, to cover for negligence or embarrassment. The Information Commissioner has announced his intention to closely monitor the way they are used, which I have welcomed. Both the Government and the Information Commissioner will ensure the spirit of the legislation is maintained."