Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Call to reform Freedom of Information Act
The Telegraph reports that the former Justice Secretary, Jack Straw has called for the Freedom of Information Act to be rewritten.
Mr. Straw has claimed that minutes were not taken of some “high level” meetings in order not to leave a paper trail while other important decisions would be made by text message, reducing accountability rather than increasing it:
He said that senior civil servants feared “horrific detail” from their notebooks about their ministers’ “streams of consciousness” would be made public under the transparency law, which he passed as Home Secretary in 2000.
Mr Straw said some discussions between ministers and officials about the formation of policy and the risks of certain decisions should be protected from disclosure, in order to allow a frank exchange of views.
The paper adds that the veteran Labour MP is himself facing questions over what he knew about a Libyan rebel, Abdel Hakim Belhadj, being sent by the CIA to be jailed and tortured by Colonel Gaddafi’s regime. They say that his possible role in the rendition of the terror suspect may yet be disclosed by FOI requests.
Mr. Straw has claimed that minutes were not taken of some “high level” meetings in order not to leave a paper trail while other important decisions would be made by text message, reducing accountability rather than increasing it:
He said that senior civil servants feared “horrific detail” from their notebooks about their ministers’ “streams of consciousness” would be made public under the transparency law, which he passed as Home Secretary in 2000.
Mr Straw said some discussions between ministers and officials about the formation of policy and the risks of certain decisions should be protected from disclosure, in order to allow a frank exchange of views.
The paper adds that the veteran Labour MP is himself facing questions over what he knew about a Libyan rebel, Abdel Hakim Belhadj, being sent by the CIA to be jailed and tortured by Colonel Gaddafi’s regime. They say that his possible role in the rendition of the terror suspect may yet be disclosed by FOI requests.
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There are of course two "high level" meetings where copious notes were recorded. They were the meetings of the British cabinet in 2003 in the run up to the Iraq war, where it was Jack Straw himself who vetoed the release of these minutes to the public domain. The only other use of ministerial veto on cabinet minutes was on devolution to Scotland and Wales in 1997, again vetoed by the previous government. Perhaps the current Prime Minister (or his deputy) should lead by example and lift these vetoes? Was Tony Blair tortured?
# posted by 
: 10:17 AM
: 10:17 AM
Nice post which The paper adds that the veteran Labour MP is himself facing questions over what he knew about a Libyan rebel, Abdel Hakim Belhadj, being sent by the CIA to be jailed and tortured by Colonel Gaddafi’s regime. They say that his possible role in the rendition of the terror suspect may yet be disclosed by FOI requests.Thanks a lot for posting this article.
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