The Freedom of Information Act gives the public – and the press – the right to request information from public authorities.

The fight for legislation was led by the Campaign for Freedom of Information and supported by the Society of Editors and the Newspaper Society, which represents regional newspaper publishers and other media organisations.

Section 1.1 says that any person making a request for information from a public authority is entitled to be told whether or not the authority holds the information. If it does, they are entitled to receive the information.

The idea is to promote a culture of openness and accountability among public sector bodies, and give a better public understanding of how public authorities carry out their duties, why they make the decisions they do, and how they spend public money.

Under the new rules, requests for information can be sent to any public body and it is the responsibility of that organisation to recognise the nature of the request and handle it effectively. Public bodies have 20 working days to respond.

Authorities must disclose properly requested information unless an exemption applies. There are relatively few ‘absolute exemptions’.

But in all other cases, even where other exemptions apply, they must still disclose information to the public if the public interest in disclosure is greater than the competing public interest in the particular exemption.

Official guidance states that: “In effect something ‘in the public interest’ is simply something which serves the interests of the public.

“When applying the test, the public authority is simply deciding whether in any particular case it serves the interests of the public better to withhold or to disclose information.”

So if the public interest in releasing the information outweighs the public interest in withholding it, the information must be released.

However, section 14 of the Act states that a public authority can reserve the right to refuse any “vexatious or repeated requests”.

This could include repeated requests from the same person for the same information, or requests which are intended to disrupt the authority’s work.

More than 100,000 bodies in England and Wales are covered by the Act, including parish councils, through district and unitary authorities to the very biggest metropolitan and shire authorities. Also covered are National Health Services, schools and the police.

Section 8 of the Act says that the request for information must be in writing, although it also says that a request by e-mail is acceptable.

Some bodies might charge for the information – if it takes more than 24 working hours to deal with – but if the work involved would take more than this amount of time, public bodies could simply refuse to supply the information. The Lord Chancellor has said that information will be free to the media in the majority of cases. Information that costs local authorities less than £450 and central government £600 to produce will not be subject to a charge.

If you are unhappy with the response you receive, you must first complain to the public authority. If you’re still unhappy, you can complain to the Information Commissioner who will decide whether the request has been handled properly. Where appropriate, a decision notice will be issued to instruct the public authority what steps it needs to take to comply with the Act.