Limiting your right to know

Lord Falconer: "Need to striek a balance"

The Freedom of Information laws, which were supposed to give us the opportunity to access information from public bodies, may have proved too popular for their own good.

So many of us have used them to apply for information, and the government's concerned they're costing too much, and taking up too much time to research.

Now the Lord Chancellor is considering whether to restrict them.

Breakfast has used the Freedom of Information Act to make many requests for information.

We've brought you stories about the increasing number of attacks on driving examiners, and an alarming rise in the theft of sat navs from cars, as well as stories about hospital parking charges and the success of a knife amnesty.

You can read some of these stories again from the right of the page, and there are lots of other helpful links to websites that tell you more about using FoI for yourself.

Watch Breakfast's report about the changes and our interview with Lord Falconer from the links to the right

Pointless requests

The Information Commissioner wants to deter "pointless and mischievous" requests to public bodies under the Freedom of Information Act.

Richard Thomas said people should act with "restraint" as such requests were jeopardising the act's reputation.

He cited a request to the Foreign Office on the amount spent on Ferrero Rocher chocolate and one on eligible bachelors in the Hampshire police.

But he also said authorities should be more robust in rejecting such requests.

More than 100,000 public bodies, including government departments, councils, the NHS, and universities, have been subject to potential FoI requests since 2005.