§ Mr. Llew SmithTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department for what reasons his Department did not publish the Draft Code of Practice, pursuant to Clause 44 of the Freedom of Information Bill, before the afternoon of 4 April. [118522]
235W
§ Mr. Mike O'BrienThe working draft of the Code of Practice was published at the earliest opportunity following necessary consultations with colleagues.
Copies of the draft Code were placed in the Library on 4 April and sent on the same day to members of the Standing Committee B which had scrutinised the Freedom of Information Bill in Committee.
§ Mr. Llew SmithTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department on how many occasions Ministers have withheld information from public disclosure under the exemption clauses of the Code of Practice on Disclosure of Official Information since May 1997. [118496]
§ Mr. Mike O'BrienThe Government publish annual monitoring reports on the operation of the Code of Practice on Access to Government Information. The reports contain statistics on the number of Code requests received by each Department in that calendar year and include details as to the number of requests which have been refused. However, the reports do not identify which of these cases were referred to Ministers or where decisions were taken by officials.
The 1997 report shows that, for the calendar year, 1,894 requests were refused—of which 1,735 relate to premature applications to the Health and Safety Executive for information relating to civil proceedings. Excluding these cases, the number of refusals of requests over the year was 159.
The 1998 report shows that in that year, 1,745 requests were refused—of which 1,534 related to premature applications to the Health and Safety Executive for information relating to civil proceedings. Excluding these cases, the number of refusals of requests over the year was 211.
The 1999 Monitoring report, which will contain the relevant statistics for last year, is being compiled and I will publish it in due course.