Parliament Should Not Be Exempt from Freedom of Information says MP

Neil Gerrard, Labour MP for Walthamstow, was one of a small group of MPs who opposed a Private members Bill to remove Parliament from the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act.

“This Bill was promoted on the grounds that it was needed to stop MPs correspondence with constituents being released in response to Freedom of Information requests” said Mr Gerrard.

“I believe it is absolutely right that a constituent who comes to me with a problem which may often involve detailed personal information should be able to feel sure that the information they have given to me is confidential and will not become public knowledge. But that situation is already coved by the Data Protection Act which forbids the release of personal information to a third party. One or two MPs claimed that there had been instances of a public authority they had written to about constituents disclosing personal information in response to a freedom of information request. Yet there have been no complaints made about this to the Information Commissioner who is responsible for the enforcement of Data Protection regulations.”

“If there was a real problem of disclosure of personal information then I would want to see action taken, but the Bill goes far beyond this and would take Parliament completely out of Freedom of Information legislation. This would stop the release of information about the administration of Parliament, including leaving the release of MP’s expenses up to Parliament to decide rather than being a requirement.”

“I believe that Parliament should be setting an example, not giving the impression that there are things that MPs wish to hide and using possible failures to enforce the Data Protection laws as an excuse for exemptions.”

May 2007

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