Today's Guardian newspaper reports that veteren Freedom of Information Act campaigner Maurice Frankel has writter to MPs calling on them not to dilute the the Freedom of Information Act.
Frankel is director of the Campaign for Freedom of Information, he told the newspaper, "We are particularly alarmed at the speed with which the proposals appear to be moving towards implementation... there is no reason why the issue should be dealt with in such haste."
As reported in the November issue of IWR, ministers are seeking to rush the proposals which will drastically dilute the law and allow the Labour government to cover up its blunders. Lord Falconer said last month he was "minded to accept the proposals" and is now seeking early parliamentary approval. Frankel points out that Baroness Ashton, a minister at the Department of Constitutional Affairs promised full public consultation before any reforms to the act before changes were made. "This is an important commitment which would normally be regarded as binding. We urge you to ensure that it is honoured," Frankel said in his letter to MPs.
It is proposed that the time it takes to read, consider and consult on requests would be added to the cost, so more requests are likely to be refused for exceeding their limit.
The other change would be to treat all requests made by an organisation or individual over a three-month period as one request and count the combined cost against the limits. This would mean that an organisation such as the BBC could make only one request every three months.
The changes were recommended in a report for the Department for Constitutional Affairs (DCA) by Frontier Economics, a consultancy where former cabinet secretary Lord Turnbull is a non-executive director.
There is also a petition at the 10 Downing Street site. This is an important issue that people ignore at their peril. It is the only way to get information in many cases.
ReplyDelete