Dear Vicky, dear All During the drafting of the Council of Europe Convention on Access to Official Documents <http://conventions.coe.int/Treaty/EN/Treaties/Html/205.htm> there was discussion on the formats of requests. The conclusion was to say in Article 4.3 that Formalities for requests shall not exceed what is essential in order to process the request.
The debate was not about on-line forms, but rather about written versus oral requests. The Explanatory Report (here: http://conventions.coe.int/Treaty/EN/Reports/Html/205.htm) at Paragraph 43 also focuses on the written vs. oral debate, but in passing indicates that emails are ok: 43. Paragraph 3 encourages Parties to the Convention to keep formalities to a minimum. Each Party is free to lay down its own procedures, but the aim is to have as few and simple as possible. Moreover, for every formality, there must be a valid need. In some countries, requests must be in written form (fax, letter, e-mail). In others, they may be made orally (at the office of the public authority concerned or by telephone) and written procedures only apply when a partial or total denial of access is considered. I would say that it would be very hard to justify the valid need for permitting only use of on-line forms! It would be really useful to hear from countries where you have successfully challenged a legal provision or a bad practice of on-line forms. Best, Helen _________________________ Helen Darbishire, Executive Director Access Info Europe, <http://www.access-info.org/> www.access-info.org mobile tel: + 34 667 685 319 Skype: helen_darbishire Twitter: @Access_Info, @helen_access Have you asked the EU yet? <http://www.asktheeu.org> www.asktheeu.org From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Victoria Anderica Sent: Thursday, March 14, 2013 11:34 AM To: Foianet Subject: [foianet] Survey about use of on line forms to submit FOI requests Dear Colleagues, I would be very grateful if you could answer the following questions about the use of on line forms to submit requests for information: The reason we are asking, is because, as you may know, Access Info Europe together with the Foundation Civio has built tuderechoasaber.es an online platform based in Alaveteli to send information requests. It has been running for almost one year now, and weve gathered very interesting data about the level of transparency in Spain. The only problem is that many Spanish institutions answer with a referral to an on line forms, which is undermining the value of this platform. But in Access Info we defend the right to submit information via email as on line forms do not permit people to respond when they get an answer. Also the requester does not know where he or she is sending the request or who is responsible for answering. Thank you very much in advance for your help. All the best, Vicky -- Victoria Anderica Caffarena Legal Researcher and Campaigner Access Info Europe Madrid +34 913 656 558 <tel:%2B34%20913%20656%20558> +34 606 592 976 <tel:%2B34%20606%20592%20976> skype: victoria.access-info http://www.access-info.org/ Síguenos en Twitter @vickyande <https://twitter.com/#%21/vickyande> , @access_info <http://twitter.com/#%21/Access_Info> y en Facebook <http://www.facebook.com/pages/Access-Info-Europe/367870967220?ref=notif¬ if_t=fbpage_admin#%21/pages/Access-Info-Europe/367870967220>
