The Access to Information Central Clearing House was established by the UK Government in January 2005. The Central Clearing House's was set up to ensure consistent application of the Data Protection Act 1998, the Freedom of Information Act 2000

Freedom of Information Act 2000

The Freedom of Information Act 2000 is an Act of Parliament of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that creates a public "right of access" to information held by public authorities. It is the implementation of freedom of information legislation in the United Kingdom on a national level...

, and the Environmental Information Regulations (EIRs) across Central Government. The Central Clearing House provides expert advice for cases referred to the Information Commissioner

Information Commissioner

The role of Information Commissioner differs from nation to nation. Most commonly it is a title given to a government regulator in the fields of freedom of information and the protection of personal data in the widest sense.-Canada:...

 or Information Tribunal

Information Tribunal

The Information Tribunal was a tribunal non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom. It was established as the Data Protection Tribunal to hear appeals under the Data Protection Act 1984...

.

Procedures exist to ensure that all requests which activate one of a number of 'triggers' are referred to the Clearing House.

Critics have blamed the Central Clearing House for the rising number of appeals to the Information Commissioner and for 'being bent on blocking as many requests for information as it can'.

Triggers for referring requests to Central Clearing House

The Government has published a list of triggers which will result in request being referred to the Central Clearing House these triggers fall under five main headings:

• Prime Ministerial and Ministerial Issues
• Royal Household and Honours
• Procurement and Efficiency
• Cross-Whitehall Issues
• Ministerial Veto Certificates and Security