International Development (Reporting and Transparency) Bill

My hon. Friend is right. One problem is that the more information is available, the more difficult it is for people to focus on what is important. It has been said that with, open government and freedom of information, more information is being put in the public domain in the knowledge that the public will not be able to get access to it—there is so much information that they will not be able to find it. We should focus on the important requirements to be brought before Parliament and debated each year. Amendment No. 4 would omit the word ““must”” from clause 2 and insert the more reasonable requirement that the Secretary of State shall"““so far as reasonably practicable””" include particular matters in the annual report. The amendment demonstrates the reasonableness of our position. It would also make it easier to add to the provisions of the schedule. One can anticipate arguments such as, ““We can’t add these provisions to the schedule because we won’t be able to guarantee the production of the information.”” However, if we qualify the requirement to produce such information in the schedule by specifying that it should be produced only so far as is reasonably practicable, the list of things included in the schedule could be more extensive than it is at present. Amendment No. 8 would require a specific report on the effectiveness of European Community aid to which the United Kingdom contributes. I know that that is a concern not just of my hon. Friend the Member for Stone (Mr. Cash), but of many other Members. We put vast sums of taxpayers’ money into the European Community, but it difficult to get good information about whether we are getting value for money.