§ Mr. Michael Morrisasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he has considered what action he should take following the High Court judgment in the case of Oliver v Northampton Borough Council that any information which a local authority held about its employees' personal affairs was open to public scrutiny at the time of audit.
§ Mr. ChopeI have today placed in the Library a paper which is being sent to the local authority associations, the Audit Commission, and other interested parties inviting comments on a proposal that at the next convenient opportunity amending legislation should be introduced so that all information which an authority holds about its employees would be excluded from public inspection, except information about gross pay, allowances, bonuses and overtime payments which would continue to be open to inspection at the time of audit.