Government Spending (Website) Bill

The above Bill was introduced by the Conservatives in late December. The Bill has a basic requirement that:

The Treasury shall create, or cause to be created, a publicly searchable website containing information about expenditure by all government departments and executive agencies

As previously mentioned on the blog, the Bill is based on similar legsilation passed in the US last year. See previous post

Read the Bill

Read the 2nd reading debate on the HoL (26th Jan.)

The Bill extends the proactive release elements of FOI specfically to information about govt spending. Baroness Noakes called this Bill a "companion" to FOIA when moving the 2nd reading.

Interestingly the Bill also states that the Information Commissioner will oversee compliance: S6: 1. "The Information Commissioner shall have the power to examine compliance 2."The Secretary of State may make regulations which facilitate the exercise of the power of the Information Commissioner under this Act.
with this Act in response to a request by any person or otherwise."

The Bill was committed to a "Committee of the Whole House", the next stage.