Towards an Extension of FoI to Cover the Private Sector

Bill Ilkovski

1994 (Wol) 9 AAL

Up until now, the focus of FOI has been on government. The concern of this paper argues that objectives of the FOI Act ( to make government more accountable, open and responsive) should be extended by the FOI Act, to cover the private sector. It is argued that corporations in the 'private sector' through their control of resources and economic decision making have just as much ability to influence and control the interests of people in society as can the government. It is proposed that if administrative law principles of which FOI is centrally important are taken to refer to a public right to participate in important decision making processes and to bring decision makers to public account for their decisions, there is no reason why such important principles should not be extended to the private sector given the public impact that decisions made by that sector can have. With the above exposition at hand the paper firstly attempts to justify the extension of FOI principles in the private sector, through the exploration of reasons as to why such an extension in FOI is needed. Secondly, the paper explains the effects such an extension will have and thirdly discusses the ambit an FOI Act should have if it is to extend a right to access to documents held by private sector bodies.