In May 2009 The Daily Telegraph began running a plethora of articles exposing MP’s expenses claims, the details of which shocked, appalled and sickened the country as a whole.  For the next two months the paper revealed the claims for every serving MP, regardless of political persuasion or party.  The issue appeared in virtually every newspaper and on every TV channel across the world.  In Britain, history had been made and the political landscape was changed forever. 

Whilst The Telegraph’s editors deserve credit for going ahead with publication in the face of threatened legal action, the information was given to them on a plate in the form of a series of leaked data discs that included the expense claims of every single MP.  The real unsung hero, or in this case heroine, of this affair is a freelance journalist called Heather Brooke.  

Brooke began here campaign to obtain MP’s expense claims in 2004.  Over the next five years she probed, wrote letters, asked for information, appealed to the authorities, probed again and finally went to the high court in an attempt to find out how our elected representatives spent our money.  A judge ruled that expenses details should be available to Brooke, only for her to see all her hard work usurped by the Daily Telegraph. 

Broke has no grudges as to how the information came out – all she wanted was for it to be made public.  However, in almost every interview she has given on this subject, Brooke mentions one single journalistic tool that enabled her to force her task to its conclusion – The Freedom of Information Act 2000.  As a part of Tony Blair’s initial legislative programme, the FOIA has opened the doors of local and national government, public bodies and the justice system to public scrutiny and accountability.  Far from being a perfect piece of law, it has allowed journalists, interested parties and ultimately members of the public to actually hold to account those who spend our money and those who govern our lives. 

In a second article we shall look at how the Freedom of Information Act has affected how councils view the information they hold, and in particular, has South Tyneside become more accountable as a result of the Act.

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