The following EDM was submitted yesterday, Tory and Liberal Democrat shadow Attorneys General Dominic Grieve and Simon Hughes have both supported it.
Text of the EDM:
That this House welcomes the finding of the Constitutional Affairs Committee (HC991) that the Freedom of Information Act has `already brought about the release of significant new information and....this information is being used in a constructive and positive way' and the committee's conclusion that it sees `no need to change' the Act's charging arrangements; views with concern reports that the Government is considering changing these arrangements to permit an application fee to be charged for all requests or to allow authorities to refuse, on cost grounds, a significant proportion of requests which they currently must answer; and considers that such changes could undermine the Act's benefits of increased openness, accountability and trust in the work of public authorities.
Contact and lobby your MP and get them to sign EDM 2699. Find your MP and contact them using http://www.writetothem.com/ . Post your responses as a comment on the blog.
Message to other bloggers: please link to this post to get help publicise the need to to lobby MPs to sign the EDM
A similar EDM back in 2004 did seem to have some effect when a harsher fees regime was mooted. Over 180 MPs signed. This blog ran a downloadable letter to send. See the Campaign for FOI site for more details of who signed in 2004.
My previous posting on the proposed fees regime
Read more at the Press Gazette
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