Not only Members of Parliament and local elected representatives have a particularly important public interest in obtaining processed public information

Today, the Supreme Administrative Court examined Andrzej Ladziński's complaint about the judgment of the Voivodship Administrative Court in Szczecin dismissing the complaint against the decision refusing access to public information (file reference number I OSK 205/18). Until now, administrative courts were of the opinion that a natural person requesting access to processed public information must demonstrate that he or she has a real impact on changing the functioning of public bodies and, as an example of such a person, pointed out to an MP or a local elected representative. Today's judgment may turn out to be groundbreaking for natural persons who are seeking access to processed public information.

In the oral part of the justification, the Supreme Administrative Court indicated that it is possible that an applicant being a natural person who does not perform any of the abovementioned functions may have a real impact on changing the way of interpreting a given legal provision, and even on a legislative change, if results of the research which he or she conducts based on the available data are presented to relevant entities (Ombudsman, judges of administrative courts, Ombudsman for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises).

Interestingly, the subject of Andrzej Ladziński's request for access to public information was data on instrumental initiation of fiscal criminal proceedings. The Supreme Administrative Court recognized that it is in the public interest to collect and publish data on this topic, if this harmful practice is to change as a result of such activities.

And soon GWW will publish an extensive report on the instrumental initiation of fiscal criminal proceedings, developed based on data from those tax administration authorities that have made them available through access to public information.