The Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill was a

private members bill A private member's bill is a bill (proposed law) introduced into a legislature by a legislator who is not acting on behalf of the executive branch. The designation "private member's bill" is used in most Westminster system jurisdictions, in whi ...

introduced to the

House of Commons of the United Kingdom The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the upper house, the House of Lords, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. The House of Commons is an elected body consisting of 650 me ...

in 2007 which failed to become law after a sponsor for the Bill could not be found in the

House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the Bicameralism, upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by Life peer, appointment, Hereditary peer, heredity or Lords Spiritual, official function. Like the ...

Background and rationale

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

David Maclean David John Maclean, Baron Blencathra, (born 16 May 1953) is a Conservative Party life peer. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Penrith and The Border from 1983 to 2010. Early and later life Born in Scotland, Maclean was educated at F ...

introduced the bill to ensure that MPs correspondence is exempt from

freedom of information laws Freedom of information laws allow access by the general public to data held by national governments and, where applicable, by state and local governments. The emergence of freedom of information legislation was a response to increasing dissatisfa ...

such as the

Freedom of Information Act 2000 The Freedom of Information Act 2000 (c. 36) is an Act 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 ...

. 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 In UK politics, the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) is the parliamentary group of the Labour Party in Parliament, i.e. Labour MPs as a collective body. Commentators on the British Constitution sometimes draw a distinction between the Labour P ...

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 mone

Progress through Parliament

The bill was withdrawn after its first reading in the House of Lords

It seemed to have failed for lack of a sponsor in the House of Lord

and due to the action of

Jack Straw John Whitaker Straw (born 3 August 1946) is a British politician who served in the Cabinet from 1997 to 2010 under the Labour governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. He held two of the traditional Great Offices of State, as Home Secretary ...

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

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. It was developed by Francis Irving and Julian Todd following the 18 March 2003 Parliamentary App ...

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References

{{Reflist

The bill

Bill tracker

(contains list of news articles).

Parliamentary debates

19 January 2007

7 February 2007

20 April 2007

25 April 2007

20 April 2007

Business Questions 10 May 2007

News articles

* ttp://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6591933.stm Blair 'no comment' on info bill 25 April 2007, BBC News
MPs to debate info exemption bid
27 April 2007, BBC News
Opponents fail to block info bill
18 May 2007, BBC News

18 May 2007, Epolitix Freedom of information legislation in the United Kingdom 2007 in British law Proposed laws of the United Kingdom