The Council of Ministers has ruled out introducing any fees or cost limits for Freedom of Information (FoI) requests.

And Ministers have also decided not to make more publicly owned companies - such as the Steam Packet and Manx Development Corporation - subject to FoI requests.

They said this would avoid placing an increased administrative burden on these companies.

But a review of FoI policy to be brought before October’s Tynwald sitting said: ‘Council of Ministers remains committed to exploring the inclusion of additional publicly-owned companies and understanding the resource and demand implications of widening the reach of FoI.

‘The Council of Ministers is dedicated to improving operational efficiency, reducing burdens, and ensuring a functional and effective FoI regime.’

Freedom of Information was introduced in the island in 2016 with no fee charged to make a request. The right to access information covers all government departments and statutory boards, eight publicly owned companies and 11 other public bodies.

But the government says with the number of requests increasing annually by 17%, this has led to rising costs and resource demands on public authorities.

A total of 985 requests were received in the 12 months to August 28 this year.

In 2024, 7% of applicants were responsible for 43% of FoI requests received, with just three responsible for 15% of all requests received.

Processing of requests have cost around £167,000 this year.

A public consultation on proposed changes to charges and scope of FoI was held earlier this year.

There were 434 responses to the consultation received with 20 organisations making a submission.

One publicly owned company said: ‘Management fear that, given the high profile of the company, as evidenced by widespread comment on social media, the company will receive a disproportionate number of FoI requests relative to other bodies.’

Another said: ‘We believe the company was established as an arm's length commercial company to allow it to trade fully without the oversight of government, with an independent board of directors.’

When asked to give an opinion on whether a fee should be introduced to make an FoI request, most respondents were opposed to this and said that as a fundamental right it should remain free.

Following strong opposition to such a change, CoMin said it would reaffirm its commitment to transparency by maintaining the current scope of the FoI policy and deciding against the introduction of fees or cost limits at this time.

It said it had decided not to include any additional publicly owned companies ‘at this time’, due to the increased administrative pressure that this would place on them.

The report added: ‘In most cases, additional resource would be required to manage the increase in demand and, at a time, when government is looking closely at efficiencies and reducing overall spend, a need to find funding to increase resource in this area is not seen as effective use of government funds at this time.’

CoMin said it was mindful of the ‘balance that needs to be struck between what is in the public interest, while respecting the need for publicly owned companies to maintain a commercial footing’.