All-party protest at secrecy powers for ministers

A cross-party alliance of senior MPs was formed yesterday to attack the Home Office for giving ministers wide-ranging powers of veto in the Freedom of Information Bill.

The chairmen of four Commons select committees and a senior Liberal Democrat called for an urgent meeting with Jack Straw, the Home Secretary, before seeking changes to the Bill during its final stages in the Commons on 4 and 5 April next week.

The MPs will oppose a blanket exemption in the Bill on the disclosure of policy advice and will seek to scrap the simple "harm" test, which could prevent information being disclosed if it was likely to cause harm.

Robin Corbett, the Labour chairman of the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee, said: "I presented a Bill on behalf of the Labour front bench just before the 1992 election on Freedom of Information. It did not give ministers vetoes. This Bill should not give ministers vetoes.

"There is no point at all in having an Information Commissioner if he is not trusted. If the Government don't trust the commissioner to have the last word then there should not be a commissioner."

The Liberal Democrat constitutional affairs spokesman, Robert Maclennan said: "The issue of the ministerial veto is central."

Tony Wright, Labour chairman of the Public Administration Select Committee, which shadows the Cabinet Office, said: "We've got a large cross-party coalition inside the House of Commons who I think are unhappy with the way in which this bill now standards.

"As the chairs of the select committees, we are going to request a meeting with the Home Secretary before the debate on Tuesday to push the points we are now arguing in the hope that ... we can get the Home Secretary to see the light."

Others who joined the call for fellow MPs to back cross-party amendments to the Bill included David Davis (C, Haltemprice and Howden), chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, and the Treasury Select Committee chairman, Giles Radice (Lab, Durham North).

The Campaign for Freedom of Information criticised the Bill for allowing exemptions to the presumption that information should be publicly available unless it would prejudice an organisation's interests. The exemptions will be in areas such as safety investigations and the background to policy decisions.