§ Mr. Matthew TaylorTo ask the President of the Board of Trade, pursuant to her answer of 11 July 1997,Official Report, column 646, how many (a) customers and (b) others were sent the letter regarding the Export Credits Guarantee Department's policy on disclosure of business information; what were the results of the Export Credits Guarantee Department's consultation exercise; and if the Export Credits Guarantee Department has drawn up new guidelines on the disclosure of information. [15621]
§ Mrs. RocheECGD's letter was sent to 11 exporters, 11 banks and five trade associations. A number of other Government Departments were also consulted. It emerged that while some customers were generally content with ECGD's guideline proposals, there was still a serious concern that the confidential nature of their business relationship with ECGD should be maintained. No new guidelines have since been drawn up by ECGD and it would be premature for work on this to be completed in advance of the publication of the Government's White Paper on freedom of information. ECGD is currently abiding by the spirit of the Open Government Code of Practise on Access to Government Information which encourages information to be disclosed unless it is judged that, on a case by case basis, such disclosure would be 95W harmful either to the competitive position of a company or the work of ECGD as insurer.