Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill

I agree. In some ways, it would be worse. My hon. Friend, with The Sunday Times, applied to ensure that information on expenses was made available—a similar application was made in Scotland, by newspaper representatives by and large. It would be unacceptable if, in the year that we received the tribunal’s judgment—indeed, in the few weeks following the decision—that such information must be publicly available, Parliament said, ““You fought the battle with the House of Commons Commission and lost, and you’ve taken it to the highest tribunal you can, but now we’re immediately going to change the decision.? It would undermine all the arguments that we are trying to present that local councils, Government agencies, quangos and Departments should have to provide information. Having set up a process that provides for an adjudication system, undermining it would be bad news. One of the great merits of the system is that it has an Information Commissioner halfway up the tree, who is the watchdog on behalf of the public. Elsewhere, we are having a debate about the Government’s attempt to increase fees and reduce people’s ability to make repeat applications. That is another potential threat to people’s ability to access information from public authorities. In the same year, there would be a move from Government, and, at the same time, from Parliament to reduce people’s ability to access information.