§ Mr. OlnerTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will accept the recommendations made in the report of the Advisory Group on Openness in the Public Sector. [119124]
§ Mr. StrawI set up the Advisory Group on Openness in the Public Sector last year to advise me on how I might facilitate a cultural change to greater openness in the public sector. The Advisory Group reported to me in December and I have carefully considered both the report and its recommendations.
The recommendations address the practical matters necessary to bring about cultural change and to implement a Freedom of Information Act. They set out a broad agenda for action which I am happy to endorse in full. I shall be looking to see how we can best give effect to that agenda and I commend the report and recommendations to all public authorities which will be brought within scope of the freedom of information regime described in the Freedom of Information Bill now before Parliament. A copy of the report has been placed in the Library and is also available on the Home Office website: www.homeoffice.gov.uk.