Mark Pack

My favourite public sector worker of the week: Lynn Wyeth

By | Sun 12th June 2011 - 1:55 pm

There’s something bureaucratic and management-speak about a job title such as “Head of Information Governance” which can make you fear that the worst sort of mix of cliches, banalities and PR warm words is about to be uttered.

But … full credit to Lynn Wyeth, holder of this post at Leicester City Council, for her comments to the media following the news that her council had received a freedom of information request about the council’s contingency plans for a zombie attack:

“We’ve had a few wacky ones before but this one did make us laugh … To you it might seem frivolous and a waste of time… but to different people it actually means something,” said Ms Wyeth.

“Everybody has their own interests and their own reasons for asking these questions.”

Careful Lynn. At this rate people might start thinking you’re a normal human being.

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3 Comments

  • Duncan 12th Jun '11 - 2:07pm

    And to think at one point I actually thought that FoI was a good idea.

  • Andrew McLean 12th Jun '11 - 8:44pm

    I saw that one too. The tone of her response also probably saved her time and effort. In my experience, the pedantic jobsworth style responses to FOI requests often just annoy the person who asked the question, prompting further requests.

    My test for an FOI officer is what do they do if someone asks for information that is already avaialable on the organisation’s web site. Do they (a) issue a formal refusal notice, stating that information is exempt under section 21 of the act “(“Information available by other means”), or (b) Respond promptly, telling the questioner where to find the information, and ask if there is anything else they can do to help. Because, believe it or not, some FOI officers do adopt the first approach.

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