Friday, June 04, 2010

Lord McNally: Govt considering how best to extend FOI Act

Freedom of Information Act 2000

Question Asked by Lord Lucas

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the Freedom of Information Act 2000 will be extended to academies, examination boards, the Higher Education Statistics Agency and the Universities and Colleges Admissions Services.[HL55]

The Minister of State, Ministry of Justice (Lord McNally): The Government intend to extend the scope of the Freedom of Information Act to provide greater transparency. We are currently considering how best to give effect to this aim, one option for which is making further bodies subject to the Act.

3 Jun 2010 : Column WA7

2 comments:

Unknown said...

This sounds positive but time is of the essence. The previous government promised to make academy schools subject to FOI but it never happened. With hundreds of schools expected (by this Government) to become academies soon, they should not be allowed to avoid scrutiny.

Unknown said...

A very important move would also be to designate housing associations as being subject to the FOI Act or at least the Environmental Information Regulations. It can't be right that by transferring responsibilities from councils to housing associations, the public suddenly loses the right to know what is going on.