My Lords, I spoke on this at Second Reading and quoted Tony Blair. Just to remind the Committee, he said that the Freedom of Information Act was
“utterly undermining of sensible government.”
I do not think it is, but I think anybody in the public sector will attest that it is often very burdensome and extremely costly to operate. It was looked at relatively recently by a group, led I think by the noble Lord, Lord Burns, and the conclusion was that on balance the law should remain as it is. But that does not mean that for every new body we should automatically apply the Freedom of Information Act requirements. The noble Baroness, Lady Chapman, was clear that if there was a case, the Opposition would support it.
It is worth looking at why an organisation such as ARIA might well be worthy of special consideration. Let us look further at what Tony Blair said:
“If you are trying to take a difficult decision and you’re weighing up the pros and cons, you have frank conversations … And if those conversations then are put out in a published form that afterwards are liable to be highlighted in particular ways, you are going to be very cautious.”
We do not want an organisation that is dragged into caution and risk aversion. We want one that is fully open internally to grappling with some very difficult issues.
4.15 pm
Professor Philip Bond, Professor of Creativity and Innovation at the University of Manchester, gave evidence to the Committee in the other place. One of the things he said was that
“if you are asking people to go out on a limb to really push the envelope, I would assert that there is an argument, which has some validity, that you make it psychologically much easier for them if they do not feel that they are under a microscope.”—[Official Report, Commons, Advanced Research and Invention Agency Bill Committee, 14/4/21; col. 29.]
This is the essence of the argument. We are asking this organisation to behave in a way in which no other public sector organisation has ever been asked to behave. We do not want it to be looking over its shoulder and worrying about what disclosure will do.
In addition, I think it is fair to say that there is quite a lot of disclosure already. There are annual reports. It is fully expected that the chairman and chief executive, and doubtless others, could appear before various Select Committees. I have the privilege to sit on the new Industry and Regulators Committee in your Lordships’ House, and I am sure it will be extremely interested in what ARIA does in due course. Of course, there is also the Science and Technology Committee.
Taken overall, because of the unique nature of this organisation it is worth considering whether a specific exemption from the FoI requirements would be a useful thing in this case.