HC Deb 19 March 2002 vol 382 cc182-3W
Matthew Taylor

To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department how much money was spent on advertising the Code of Practice on Access to Government Information to the public in(a) 1998, (b) 1999, (c) 2000 and (d) 2001. [43449]

Mr. Wills

None. Information about the Code of Practice on Access to Government Information is available on the websites of the Lord Chancellor's Department (www.lcd.gov.uk) and the Parliamentary Ombudsman (www.ombudsman.org.uk).

Matthew Taylor

To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department what assessment he has conducted of the length of time Governments in other countries have taken to implement their Freedom of Information Acts; and if he will place the results of this research in the Library. [43451]

Mr. Wills

I have assessed the implementation of similar legislation in some other countries from various published materials. In summary, other countries have implemented their freedom of information legislation within different time scales. 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. However, these countries were able to implement their Acts over a shorter time scale than is proposed in the United Kingdom because of the more limited 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 approximately 70,000 bodies across the whole of the public sector. The Irish Act was signed into law in April 1997. It will eventually have roughly the same scope as the United Kingdom Act, although generally it is not retrospective in effect unlike the UK Act. It has been rolled out on an incremental basis from April 1998 onwards and it is likely that their implementation period will be longer than the time taken to fully implement the UK Act. The duties on public authorities under the Freedom of Information Act will come into effect in stages from November 2002 to January 2005 and the Act will be fully in force 11 months ahead of the statutory deadline.