Do the Conservatives want to exempt MPs from Freedom of Information rules after all?

By Mark Pack | Thu 23rd August 2007 - 12:00 am

You may recall the fuss over attempts by Conservative and Labour MPs to exempt MPs from the Freedom of Information Act. This would have allowed all sorts of things to be kept secret in future, but the supporters of the move claimed it was necessary to protect correspondence with constituents.

Now, one of the arguments (rightly) used against this was that the Data Protection Act protects constituents’ correspondence, so there was no need to exempt MPs from the Freedom of Information rules.

So, over to the Conservative Party, August 2007 policy proposals vintage. Their latest policy review group proposes scrapping the Data Protection Act (well, that’s one of their views, though they flip flop an awful lot within the document). So what would happen to correspondence with constituents?

Four options:

The Conservatives really want private details in correspondence between MPs and constituents to be available to all and sundry (boo! hiss!).
The Conservatives would actually resurrect the idea of exempting all MPs from the Freedom of Information Act (boo! hiss!).
The Conservatives would scrap the act, but then straight away introduce new rules to deal with the mess they’ve created, so they aren’t really cutting regulation after all (surely not!).
The Conservatives haven’t really got a clue what they’re doing (surely not!).

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2 Comments

Stuart 23rd Aug '07 - 9:53am

Well spotted. I suspected that it’s cock-up rather than conspiracy. I’d go with option 4 myself. Hywel’s arse & elbow illustration applies again.
Cheltenham Robin 24th Aug '07 - 4:04pm

Is the answer 1234?

It usually is.