How do British political parties feel about a Freedom of Information Act?  I forwarded the question to the three major parties and as yet have only had one response...

• Charter 88, the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats support the introduction of a Freedom of Information Act.
• A Freedom of Information Act is needed, they argue, to end the secrecy of British Government, and make it more transparent to the public, so that they can make informed decisions about government policy.
• Allow citizens to hold the decisions of politicians and civil servants up to scrutiny.

• The reality is that we do not need a Freedom of Information Act.  It is a myth to say that British Government is shrouded in Secrecy.  A lot of information is made available to the public.
• The first question that Conservatives should ask is which information should be made available?  Naturally, there will always have to be areas of secrecy in Government, such as the activities of the Security Service to defend national security and uphold our economic well-being, for example.  It would undermine national security if the decisions and operation of the security services were held up to the scrutiny of a few liberal inquisitive intellectuals.
• The information that the public needs to know about has been made available to them.  It has been a Conservative Government that has published performance tables for our schools and hospitals, published the response times of the police and ambulance services and in short made the public services more transparent to the public.  We believe that the public has a right to know the services they rely on and pay for through their taxes.
• It has been a Conservative Government also that has given individuals the right to see Government files on them.  The Data Protection Act 1984 allows individuals access to information held about them on computer by Government departments and other bodies.  This is as real safeguard of citizens' rights.

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