§ Lord Lester of Herne Hillasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they have revised their timetable for the bringing into force of the Freedom of Information Act 2000; and, if so, what are their reasons. [HL1152]
§ Lord Bassam of BrightonThe Freedom of Information Act 2000 must be implemented across the whole of the public sector by 30 November 2005. However, the Government, as part of their commitment to increasing openness, have stated that they intend to implement the Act much earlier than this.
There are ongoing discussions with the Information Commissioner regarding what is a practicable and achievable timetable for implementation. There is a great deal of work required on the Commissioner's part in approving a publication scheme for all public authorities before their implementation date and also in the recruitment and training of staff in order to achieve this. It would be inappropriate to propose a detailed timetable for the implementation process until these discussions are complete.
There is, however, a great deal of work under way at the moment to ensure that implementation can be achieved as expeditiously as possible within all public authorities. There will be an announcement of the timetable itself in due course.