§ Lord Lester of Herne Hillasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they have exercised or intend to exercise the power conferred by Section 75(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to amend or repeal enactments prohibiting the disclosure of information held by public authorities.
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs (Baroness Ashton of Upholland)The Government have conducted a wide-ranging review of statutory prohibitions on disclosure over a number of years. The review is now drawing to a close.
24WAOver 400 items have been identified during the course of the review, of which 44 have been repealed or replaced by other legislation during the course of the review; 37 are agreed for repeal or amendment (of which eight amendments are to introduce a "sunset clause" ranging from 10 to 100 years depending on the information protected); 102 will he retained; and 247 are presently being reviewed.
Details of the interim findings are included at Chapter 5 of the annual report on the implementation of the Freedom of Information Act, published on 29 November. A final report on the Government's review of statutory prohibitions on disclosure will be published in March 2005.
As a result of this work, the first order to he made under Section 75(1) of the Freedom of Information Act was laid before Parliament on 4 November this year, relating to eight of the 37 enactments mentioned above. These are: Factories Act 1961, Section 154; Offices, Shops and Railway Premises Act 1963, Section 59; Medicines Act 1968, Section 118; Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, Section 28; Biological Standards Act 1975, Section 5; National Health Service Act 1977, Schedule 11, paragraph 5; Audit Commission Act 1998, Section 49; and Access to Justice Act 1999, Section 20.
The majority of these amendments prevent the prohibitions applying to disclosures made by public authorities subject to the Freedom of Information Act.