§ Lord Lester of Herne Hillasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they have information as to the period of time found necessary by the Governments of Canada, New Zealand and Ireland to bring into force their freedom of information legislation; and, if so, whether they will publish this information. [HL1394]
138WA
§ Lord Bassam of BrightonThe information to which the noble Lord refers was collected as part of the lengthy and detailed consultation process that preceded the drafting of our legislation.
The Canadian federal freedom of information legislation was enacted in June 1982 and came into force in July 1983. The New Zealand Official Information Act was enacted in December 1982 and came into force in July 1983. The Irish Act was signed into law in April 1997. It was applied to central government and certain other bodies in April 1998 and applied to local authorities and health boards in October 1998. Since then, they have been rolling out freedom of information on an incremental but sustained basis. They plan to bring in unversities and the third level education sector in October of this year.
The Irish freedom of information legislation will eventually have roughly the same scope as the United Kingdom Act, though it is not, of course, retrospective in nature. Due to the size of its scope, they have found that it is necessary to roll it out in a gradual manner, with bodies such as the police not yet brought within the scope of their Act. It is likely that their implementation period will be longer than the five-year limit on the face of the United Kingdom Act.
The Canadians and the New Zealanders were able to implement their Acts over a shorter timescale because of the smaller scope of their legislation. The Canadian Act applies only to information held by government departments and most government agencies, roughly 150 bodies, while the New Zealand legislation applies only to central government.
In contrast, the Freedom of Information Act 2000 will apply to over 50,000 bodies across the whole of the public sector. It will apply to local government, the police and general practitioners, for example, in the same way as it applies to central government departments. As a result, a considerable amount of work is required, in particular on the part of the Information Commissioner in the shape of approving publication schemes in order to ensure that the Act is implemented in the best way possible.