The government have (quite rightly) identified innovation as being important to British business and have earmarked government money to support it. They've appointed a quango called the Technology Strategy Board (TSB) to oversee this process but, due to lack of appropriate controls, the TSB is not operating in the open and transparent way expected of a government agency. This blog article describes the situation leading up to a Freedom of Information Request being made against them - for information that should already have been published on their website.
The TSB was set up in 2006 and, according to the TSB website, this is their mission:
I’m working with a client to apply for one of these grants and one of my responsibilities as advisor is to give clients guidance on their likely chances of success. The application process for these grants is quite onerous and obviously there's no benefit in an entrepreneur expending a lot of effort in applying if there’s minimal chances of success. With this in mind I’ve just phoned them on their specialist query line (0300 321 4357) to ask them for a list of previous applicants and their success rates.
The TSB was set up in 2006 and, according to the TSB website, this is their mission:
“The Technology Strategy Board is the UK’s national innovation agency. Our goal is to accelerate economic growth by stimulating and supporting business-led innovation.”
I’m working with a client to apply for one of these grants and one of my responsibilities as advisor is to give clients guidance on their likely chances of success. The application process for these grants is quite onerous and obviously there's no benefit in an entrepreneur expending a lot of effort in applying if there’s minimal chances of success. With this in mind I’ve just phoned them on their specialist query line (0300 321 4357) to ask them for a list of previous applicants and their success rates.
I was also interested to see if there were any technology areas that the TSB appeared to favour so I also asked for the “project abstracts” of the successful applicants. According to the information for applicants on their website, the project abstract is:
“a brief, public facing description the project – no more than 2000 characters – using language that can be understood by people without specialist knowledge or expertise. It should explain why the project is innovative … Should your project be successful, this information will be made public once the award is confirmed.”
In other words, there shouldn’t be any problems in making this information public because the applicants have been told that this is a condition of their application.
I spoke to a lady (I won’t give her name here) who said her job title was Business Support Analyst. She did not have the slightest idea what I was asking for but I was put on hold for a long period of time and finally she came back and said that the information was not available nor could she tell me when the information would be made available. Naturally, I didn’t think this was acceptable especially given that the TSB is a public body spending public money. And its not as if they haven’t had time to get this information together either. According to the documentation on the TSB website the first batch of applications were processed on the 5th May and that the information was supplied in electronic form by the applicants. Therefore there’s no data entry or other processes required before it can be posted on their website. Its now the 26th July, a full 11 weeks later, so there’s been more than enough time to publish it.
The next thing she said surprised me: She actually suggested that I ask for the information via a Freedom of Information request (FOI). The FOI has been one of the great new ideas of the last decade and has already made government more accountable in a number of ways. Most famously it lead to the expenses scandal in Westminster and the resulting change in the expenses procedures. It is a tremendous force for good in terms of the move to transparent government but its there as a last resort, not as a mainstream way of making information available to the public. Surely an established organisation like the TSB should have written guidelines advising staff on the timeliness and method of making information available to the public? This seemed so obvious to me that I asked her: what guidelines does the TSB use when determining a reasonable period of time to publish information. After I’d asked this question there was silence from her end and after a few moments I realised that she’d put the phone down on me.
Hence, we’re now at the position of making an FOI application. It really shouldn’t come to this.
I’ve made my FOI request via a website called What Do They Know and you can see my request here. I’ll let you know, via this blog, as to how the TSB respond.
Update (27 July): TSB have been in touch and say I'll have a formal response no later than 23rd August.
I spoke to a lady (I won’t give her name here) who said her job title was Business Support Analyst. She did not have the slightest idea what I was asking for but I was put on hold for a long period of time and finally she came back and said that the information was not available nor could she tell me when the information would be made available. Naturally, I didn’t think this was acceptable especially given that the TSB is a public body spending public money. And its not as if they haven’t had time to get this information together either. According to the documentation on the TSB website the first batch of applications were processed on the 5th May and that the information was supplied in electronic form by the applicants. Therefore there’s no data entry or other processes required before it can be posted on their website. Its now the 26th July, a full 11 weeks later, so there’s been more than enough time to publish it.
The next thing she said surprised me: She actually suggested that I ask for the information via a Freedom of Information request (FOI). The FOI has been one of the great new ideas of the last decade and has already made government more accountable in a number of ways. Most famously it lead to the expenses scandal in Westminster and the resulting change in the expenses procedures. It is a tremendous force for good in terms of the move to transparent government but its there as a last resort, not as a mainstream way of making information available to the public. Surely an established organisation like the TSB should have written guidelines advising staff on the timeliness and method of making information available to the public? This seemed so obvious to me that I asked her: what guidelines does the TSB use when determining a reasonable period of time to publish information. After I’d asked this question there was silence from her end and after a few moments I realised that she’d put the phone down on me.
Hence, we’re now at the position of making an FOI application. It really shouldn’t come to this.
I’ve made my FOI request via a website called What Do They Know and you can see my request here. I’ll let you know, via this blog, as to how the TSB respond.
Update (27 July): TSB have been in touch and say I'll have a formal response no later than 23rd August.
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