The DWP has suffered a setback.
The Department for Work and Pensions has lost a major court battle to keep the locations of thousands of workfare placements secret.
At the end of a freedom of information challenge that has lasted 15 months, Judge David Marks QC ruled that the DWP must publish the names of businesses and charities hosting hundreds of thousands of unemployed people who, in some cases, must undertake weeks of unpaid work as a condition of receiving benefits.
Once again, we have government thinking it is above the law. The whole point of freedom of information is so that we – their employers – can see what they have been up to. It is not up to them to keep their activities a secret from us – their employers. Workfare aside this is again an example of the supreme arrogance exhibited by these people. They are not above us, they are our servants and it is about time they started behaving accordingly.
While campaigners welcomed the judgment, the DWP said it was “very disappointed” and was considering its next move. That could include an appeal to the high court or deploying a ministerial veto to ban publication.
So they will waste even more of our money in their attempt to deny us what is rightfully ours – information on what they have been up to.
Fighting against a disclosure order from the information commissioner, the DWP told tribunal judges that it should be exempt from three original FOIs filed by the public because of the damage to commercial interests. Charities, they argued, would lose donations and customers because they would be subject to extremely adverse publicity if their involvement with the programmes was revealed.
I think you will find that that is the point – if we know who has been involved, we can express our displeasure directly with the organisations involved. This is only right and proper in a liberal democracy. It is not up to the state to protect these businesses or the money flowing into charities – that is our concern and if we want the necessary information to make an informed decision about withholding that money, that is up to us, not them.
What’s the betting that those charities are all fake?
I’d say it’s a fair probability.
There is also the chance that these charities have several very highly paid executives and that only a small percentage of each donation actually goes to the cause mentioned. Should people find out that they are also benefitting from unpaid labour the donations to their pension fund (sorry I meant to type charity) might dry up.
“Charities, they argued, would lose donations and customers because they would be subject to extremely adverse publicity if their involvement with the programmes was revealed.”
Which can only mean that both the DWP and the Charities know that the Workfare scheme is unacceptable for a Charity, you might even say it is uncharitable. Should not a Charity which acts uncharitably towards anyone, especially an “employee” should be struck off?
Can mention one straight away – Royal Mail and they do not like the feckless they are sent.
Here’s a link to a list of a few more:
http://www.boycottworkfare.org/?page_id=16
As for “the feckless” then perhaps Royal Mail should have been careful what they wished for. No sympathy.
They don’t mind naming and shaming companies who they want more tax money from.
Any charity with a turnover in excess of £10k PA has to register with the Charities Commission. You can simply check the relevant charities page for their number, and paste it into the search box at the CC site. There will be a list of most recently submitted accounts which you can download in PDF format. The vast majority have their fingers in the public purse one way or another…