Letter: Culture of secrecy will not change overnight

Sir: If the Government is not complying with the spirit of the Freedom of Information Act, then MPs must urgently review the legislation with a view to reducing the number of permitted exemptions.

There is no rational reason for the intelligence services to be given absolute immunity from the law. Whilst it may be possible to construct an argument that current operational files should not be released immediately, the same argument cannot be applied to decades-old files of agents, officers and targets that are long dead. But by restricting our access to very old files only, we still have little opportunity to hold the clandestine services to account for their activities and our taxes which pay for their covert operations.

Sweeping exemptions make a hollow mockery of our democracy and place these agencies above the law and beyond accountability to the electorate. MPs must legislate to make it illegal to withhold information because it might cause embarrassment to the government, as is the case in the US. The law must also state that in any case of doubt over whether information should be released, the law must mandate its release. Further provisions must also prohibit the retention of information detailing illegal activities within government or by its contractors. Such provisions are the only guarantee to correct decades of secrecy.

We are well overdue for a thorough Parliamentary review of civilian and military/intelligence secrecy regimes and how they work with the FOIA and Official Secrets Act.

RICHARD MARTIN

Newmarket,

Cambridgeshire