Controversial plans by MPs to exempt themselves from the Freedom of Information (FoI) Act have stalled in the House of Lords after failing to find a sponsor willing to introduce them.
The private members bill that would exempt members of parliament from having to release information under the Act cannot now be introduced before the summer recess on 26 July.
If a sponsor can be found, Conservative MP David Maclean’s Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill could be introduced in the autumn, but probably in a watered-down form.
As IWR reported last month, the bill would free MPs from having to release correspondence with their constituents , and remove the legal duty on public bodies to disclose any correspondence with MPs.
In a separate development, the second consultation period on the government’s plans to tighten the rules on requests for information under the FoI Act came to an end last month. The government now has three months to consider and publish its findings.
The government’s proposals would add the time it takes to read, consider and consult on requests to the cost of FoI inquiries and would also treat all requests made by an organisation or individual over a three-month period as one, combining the costs to count towards the price ceiling imposed on requests.
Campaigners claim these rules would curb the release of politically sensitive documents. Maurice Frankel, director of the Campaign for Freedom of Information , said the government had been trying to sabotage the Act and called on the new prime minister, Gordon Brown, to “kill off both sets of malodorous proposals”.
The constitutional affairs committee last month also called on the government “to abandon these unnecessary, unpopular and undesirable restrictions”. It said there was no evidence that the FoI Act needed to be limited and said the changes would allow public bodies to dodge embarrassing or difficult questions.
