Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill

The Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill was a private members bill introduced to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom in 2007 which failed to become law. Conservative

Conservative Party (UK)

The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

David Maclean

David John Maclean, Baron Blencathra is a Conservative Party life peer. He was the Member of Parliament for Penrith and The Border from 1983 to 2010.-Biography:...

introduced the bill to ensure that MPs correspondence is exempt from freedom of information laws such as the Freedom of Information Act 2000

Freedom of Information Act 2000

The Freedom of Information Act 2000 is an Act of Parliament of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that creates a public "right of access" to information held by public authorities. It is the implementation of freedom of information legislation in the United Kingdom on a national level...

. Maclean said of his Bill:
Although the government claimed it was neutral on the issue, private members bills rarely pass without government support, leading to claims the executive tacitly supported moves to water down freedom of information legislation. Members of the backbench committee of the Parliamentary Labour Party

Parliamentary Labour Party

In UK politics, the Parliamentary Labour Party is the parliamentary party of the Labour Party in Parliament: Labour MPs as a collective body....

had emailed colleagues in support of the bill. The email said:
The proposed changes complemented Government proposals to change the way freedom of information requests are costed. Critics of the changes claimed the intention was to keep embarrassing information secret, rather than to save money.http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6179617.stm

The bill was withdrawn after its first reading in the House of Lords. http://www.epolitix.com/legislation/legislation-details/newsarticle/freedom-of-information-amendment-bill-failed-bill-200607-session/ It seemed to have failed for lack of a sponsor in the House of Lords http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2007/jun/14/uk.pressandpublishing and due to the action of Jack Straw

Jack Straw

Jack Straw , British politician.Jack Straw may also refer to:* Jack Straw , English* "Jack Straw" , 1971 song by the Grateful Dead* Jack Straw by W...

. http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2007/jun/14/freedomofinformation.uk1

A full account of the Parliamentary votes on 20 April 2007 and 18 May is available on Public Whip

Public Whip

The Public Whip is a parliamentary informatics project that analyses and publishes the voting history of MPs in the Parliament of the United Kingdom....

.http://www.publicwhip.org.uk/policy.php?id=996&display=motions

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The bill

Parliamentary debates

News articles