FOIMan hangs up his cape.

Visitors to this site will have noticed that not much has changed in the last 3 years. Well nothing has changed in fact. It was always my intention when I last wrote here to take a break and then return to blogging when the mood took me.

Only it hasn’t. After over a decade of writing here about freedom of information (FOI) and related subjects, I found that once I got out of the habit it was hard to find the motivation or inspiration to begin again. Plus, these days I’m back in the saddle as a full-time FOI manager with all the responsibilities that entails, making it more difficult to opine on FOI issues without making a rod for my own back.

So I’ve made the decision to close down the FOIMan website in the next few weeks or so. It costs money to keep it going and if it’s sitting here doing nothing that feels a bit of a waste. I’m also very conscious that whilst people have said some very kind things about the resources here, I haven’t been maintaining them, and don’t want out-of-date guidance to mislead anyone.

If you really want to go back and read something from the FOIMan site, you can access snapshots of the site through almost its whole history on the UK Web Archive or other internet archives. I should also note that most of the useful stuff here is better set out in my book The Freedom of Information Officer’s Handbook (details here of how you can get a 30% discount on its cover price). Whilst I’m on the subject, those of you who have read my blog because you are interested in making FOI requests could do far worse than to pick up a copy of Martin Rosenbaum’s excellent new book, Freedom of Information: A Practical Guidebook (see Jon Baines’ review here if you want to know more). While I mention it, I’d also recommend Jon’s blog Information Rights and Wrongs if you still want a blog on FOI and data protection matters.

I’m going to hold onto the domain for now so who knows, maybe I’ll be back. Or maybe someone else will don the cape and mask. I’d be happy to hear from any FOI officers who are interested in giving a different perspective on FOI – from the inside – just as I was way back in 2010. In the meantime, thank you for your interest, comments and feedback over the last 13 years.