Conservative bill to restrict FoI linked to government

Speaking on The Today programme this morning, Lib-Dem leader, Sir Menzies ("Ming") Campbell warned there would be “one law for MPs and one law for everyone else” should a proposed bill to curb Freedom of Information (FoI) requests of correspondence between MPs and their constituents gain approval in parliament. The proposed private members bill has been championed by Tory MP, David Maclean.

Considering the origin of the bill originates from an opposition MP, John Humphrys, the show presenter, asked quite rightly why it has been given so much support from MPs across the board. Campbell confirmed he had heard “rumours of Labour whips being engaged in this”.

In case you didn’t know, under the current FoI Act, correspondence between MPs and constituents must remain confidential, however if an MP were to pass that correspondence onto a third party in the public sector, such as  the NHS or a government department, that information could then inadvertently be accessed through application of the act.

Labour MP Ann Cryer, who backs the bill justified her position saying that “its too risky not to” citing that some of her correspondence deals with arranged marriages with women trying to prevent their supposed spouses from gaining access to the country, if this information was available to the woman’s parents, Cryer argued she could be in danger. On this principle, it’s argued an influential Labour party committee of back benchers are urging support.

Meanwhile, Labour MP, Andrew MacKinlay remains unconvinced, arguing that you don’t need to exempt Parliament from the FoI Act “what is required is a strengthening of the Data Protection Act’, he said, ‘what you need is very severe sanctions when an organisation, be it a government department or private company discloses personal data” he told Radio 4 listeners.

Campbell meanwhile explained how he had both written to “PM-in-waiting” Gordon Brown expressing his concerns, whilst in a recent Prime Ministers Questions session; outgoing premier Tony Blair chose “not to express an opinion”.
Requests made by Radio 4 offering Maclean the opportunity for an interview to add weight to his bill, have so far proved surprisingly fruitless.