§ Mr. Gordon PrenticeTo ask the Deputy Prime Minister what steps he is taking to ensure that the terms of PPP contracts are in the public domain; and if he will make a statement. [23647]
§ Mr. Andrew Smith[holding answer 9 January 2002]: I have been asked to reply.
It is for Departments to decide what contractual information to publish. But we took steps in 1998 to encourage greater openness of PFI contractual information, with Treasury Taskforce Policy Statement No 4 on "Disclosure of Information and Consultation with Staff and Other Interested Parties". This publication, which is available on the Office of Government Commerce website, built on the Code of Practice on Access to Government Information produced by the Cabinet Office (Second Edition 1997) which said that:
the approach to release of information should in all cases be based on the assumption that information should be released … except where disclosure would not be in the public interest or would breach personal privacy or the confidences of a third party.