The Guardian reports on how academics may be able to use the Freedom of Information Act:

Discovering the really interesting information will largely depend on knowing what questions to ask. The general public might struggle here, but if anyone should know where the bodies are buried it’s an academic. Peter Hennessy’s postgraduate students have formed a Freedom of Information hit-squad to target documents from the late 70’s — on the grounds that the government is likely to care less about their disclosure than about papers from more recent times — but it’s fair to say there hasn’t exactly been a stampede of researchers rushing to the post office to send off their requests to Whitehall.

[ADDED 10.1.2006]