The Guardian

By Rob Evans

27 November 2006

Ministers are today accused of rushing through drastic proposals that would "neuter" the Freedom of Information Act. The government is not planning to hold a proper public consultation on the proposals, breaking a pledge made by a minister in parliament.

Lord Falconer, the constitutional affairs secretary, with the backing of ministerial colleagues, is putting forward measures that would make it simpler for government to reject requests for information from the public on the basis of being "too expensive to answer".

But critics - including MPs, campaigners and the media - accuse ministers of seeking to prevent the release of politically controversial documents, less than two years after the act came into force.

In a letter to ministers published today, Maurice Frankel, director of the Campaign for Freedom of Information, said: "We are particularly alarmed at the speed with which the proposals appear to be moving towards implementation ... there is no reason why the issue should be dealt with in such haste."

He added that ministers, having announced the proposals last month, were seeking early parliamentary approval.

He said ministers were avoiding a formal public consultation "because the government does not want to be deflected from the course of action which it is determined to pursue".

He highlighted a promise made by Baroness Ashton, a minister in the Department for Constitutional Affairs, when she was being questioned by a House of Commons committee in April. Asked whether ministers would hold a proper consultation if they were planning to change the way the public was charged for requesting information, she said: "If we ... decide that we want to do something quite different around the fees regime, I think we have to do a public consultation in any event." She added it was "important to have dialogue" with the public.

Mr Frankel said: "That is an important commitment which would normally be regarded as binding. We urge you to ensure that it is honoured."

Since the act became law it has been used to reveal information including the amount of EU subsidies paid to landowners and members of the royal family, the number of patients who die in operations carried out by individual surgeons, and details of who is lobbying ministers. According to the Campaign for Freedom of Information, such disclosures would be blocked by the planned changes.

Under present rules public bodies can reject requests if the cost of retrieving documents exceeds £600 for Whitehall and £450 for other public bodies. Ministers want to make it more likely these caps would be breached by allowing departments to count time taken to read documents and discuss their release.