Freedom of Information Ten Minute Rule Bill

We come to the ten minute rule

motion. Belize heh.

I beg to move at

least be given to bring in a bill to

make provision for the disclosure of

information by public authorities on

persons contracted to provide

services for them or on your behalf

to amend the field of information

act 2004 connected purposes. Nearly

20 years on from the revolution of

the Freedom of Information Act this

bill with extended parameters into

the unaccountable outsourced estate.

It would enhance the existing powers

available to private citizens,

investigate journalists and

concerned communities so they are

not forced to wait through a swap of

bureaucracy to get answers about

decisions made in your name. I would

like to pay tribute to the members

are tapping on this for many years

like the honourable member from

Hammersmith is a similar bill on the

session and has focused on housing

associations which I will come to

sharply. Those in power have had a

long and difficult Croatian ship

with freedom of information, and

like much that challenges discovered

it has met resistance at every step

of the way. The Thatcher government

was so concerned with the 1980s and

warned that if all reduce the

sovereignty of Parliament itself. In

that context it was remarkable about

the last Labour government out of

power for 18 years committed itself

to shining a light on the shadows

cast by decisions made behind closed

doors. Tony Blair said at the time

this act is fundamental to changing

the way we do politics in this

country. There are still far too

much an addiction to secrecy and a

wish to conduct government business

behind closed doors. Tony Blair did

of course come to regret that

revolution, but nevertheless it was

nothing short of revolutionary.

Literally thousands of cases on

every topic imaginable sort

information drawn into the public

domain, expenses, bonuses, stop and

search figures, the exposing of

child sex life by patient, all

brought to light because of this

act. A Labour achievement and one we

should be proud of. That is why the

last two Labour manifestos pledged

to extend freedom of information to

those performing public services. We

did is because he recognised the

freedom that Maggie Wien which

freedom of information operate has

changed as the government addiction

to outsourcing has exploded. The

collapse of Pirelli and as one

recent example of an ever-growing

shadow state in which some of the

government's were dubious policy

priorities are outsourced, leaving

citizens in the dark about what is

happening in their name. Under the

Coalition outsourcing almost doubled

to 120 billion pounds, never before

has shareholder interest over the

public interest have such a large

stake in the functioning of state.

Transparency and accountability has

diminished and the limited scope of

the FOIA act allows too many of

those well performing public

functions with public money to

nonetheless hide behind a cloak of

secrecy. But decisions, warnings

ignored, the results time and time

again are similar to the scandal

exposed the past fortnight.