Open Government (Hansard, 7 July 1997)

§ Mr. Baker
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster how many complaints have been referred to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration since 1 May under the Code of Practice on Access to Government Information. [6893]

§ Dr. David Clark
Three.

§ Mr. Baker
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster how many requests for information have been received since 1 May under the Code of Practice on Access to Government Information; and if he will make a statement. [6892]

§ Dr. Clark
This information is not held centrally in the form requested and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost. The contribution of the code of practice on open government is, however, an important issue and I shall continue the existing practice of publishing an annual report on the workings of the Code which will contain an analysis of code requests received on a calender year basis.

§ Mr. Baker
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what plans he has to narrow the terms of the classes of exempt information listed in the Code of Practice on Access to Government Information. [6894]

§ Dr. Clark
I would like to see the proposed Freedom of Information Act have fewer exemptions than the present Code of Practice on Access to Government Information. In the period before the Act comes into force 325W the Government will make full use of the discretion available under the Code of Practice to disclose as much information as possible. Should it become clear that the wording of the Code is proving over-restrictive, even under this more liberal interpretation, I will consider amendments.

§ Mr. Baker
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster how much has been spent since 1 May to publicise the Code of Practice on Access to Government Information; how many copies of the code have been(a) published and (b) issued since 1 May; and if he will make a statement. [6891]

§ Dr. Clark
No new advertising campaigns have been launched since 1 May but I plan to use the launch of the forthcoming White Paper on Freedom of Information to publicise the continuing role of the Code of Practice on Access to Government Information in the period before the Act comes into force.
Information on the total number of copies of the Code issued by Departments in the period since 1 May is not held centrally and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost. I can say however that the central Citizen's Charter Publications Line has issued some 250 copies of the Code in response to requests in that period and my own Department has responded to 30 requests.