Open Government (Hansard, 24 January 1994)

§ 32. Mr. Simon Coombs
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what representations he has received on his White Paper on open government.

§ The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (Mr. William Waldegrave)
I have received representations from about 100 organisations, which are now being reviewed. We will announce our conclusions shortly, after considering the representations. I am sure that the House will agree that it is important that the Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration, the ombudsman, should be properly resourced to oversee the code of practice. I am, therefore, pleased to announce that next year the resources available for the PCA will be £9.5 million—more than double the current level.

§ Mr. Coombs
Am I right in thinking that in those representations there has been widespread support for the 15 idea of the code of practice being policed by the new commissioner? Would it not be sensible to wait until the new scheme has had plenty of opportunity to operate, so that we can judge it in practice, before my right hon. Friend chooses to introduce legislation on freedom of information?

§ Mr. Waldegrave
My hon. Friend was a member of Standing Committee C, which considered the Right to Know Bill, and is expert on those matters. Many of the people who have doubted that we were going down that route said that we would not resource the ombudsman properly to do his job. We have done that now and I am pleased to be able to announce it. I think that the new system will work well and that it will be much easier for people to deal with than complicated court-based procedures.

§ Mr. Meacher
How can the Tory Administration make any pretensions to open government when five Cabinet Ministers have secretly signed certificates that would have sent innocent men to jail rather than expose their duplicity in misleading the House about arms to Iraq, and when the Prime Minister—

§ Madam Speaker
Order. The hon. Gentleman may well wish to rephrase what he has just said about duplicity and misleading the House. Indeed, he must rephrase what he has said.

§ Mr. Meacher
We are concerned that what we have been told is not the full truth. I wish to say no more than that. That is a matter with regard to open government. We are concerned when the Prime Minister has tried to pretend his total ignorance of Iraqgate for four whole years, when Westminster and Wandsworth councils have secretly pursued a policy of bribing residents to leave, not to provide homes for the homeless but to provide votes for themselves, and when the Prime Minister overrides a permanent secretary to force him to spend £200 million of aids moneys as a sweetener for an arms deal in Malaysia in statutory breach of the Overseas Development and Co-operation Act 1980. When will this Tory Government ever learn that the first requirement of open government is to start telling the truth?

§ Mr. Waldegrave
The hon. Gentleman was a junior member of a Government who failed even to tell their own Cabinet about Chevaline because they did not trust the left-wing Cabinet members—at that time, he was a fiery left-winger, but since then he has become more middle class—let alone announce it to the House of Commons. The hon. Gentleman should give up doing his failed Presiley Baxendale act. He does it much more incompetently than that barrister—[Interruption.] If the hon. Members behind the Opposition Front Bench could have heard comments made by those on it, they would rightly have spoken of sexism. They should listen to the rubbish spoken by their own Front Bench.
The hon. Gentleman had no other points to make today except one, which he made in The Times—[HON. MEMBERS: "Answer him."] I am answering the hon. Gentleman's point. He made serious allegations against the Prime Minister in The Times. He did not even check the facts. He referred to a letter which he alleged had been written to the Prime Minister in June 1990. If he will recollect matters, he will find that the present Prime 16 Minister was not the Prime Minister in June 1990. That is about the level of accuracy of the hon. Gentleman's allegations.

§ Mr. Duncan Smith
Are not the recent Herr Mohnke disclosures good illustrations of the need for my right hon. Friend to keep encouraging and pushing his colleagues to release such information early, as it is important for the general public to understand such details so that they can start asking questions and we can put pressure on our allies and colleagues?

§ Mr. Waldegrave
The Ministry of Defence has made it clear that it was in relation to new, tougher criteria for the retention of documents that those papers were released. I think that the House has welcomed that.