MPs debate information bill

The bill is a manifesto commitment by Labour

The government is facing its second backbench rebellion in less than 24 hours as the Commons debates the controversial freedom of information legislation.

MPs have begun debating Home Secretary Jack Straw's bill, which aims to open up Whitehall and other public bodies in the face of a cross-party campaign to strengthen the measures to provide greater access to information.

Ministers met Labour MPs to try and head off the rebellion right up to the start of Tuesday's debate.

Any rebellion would come less than 24 hours after 41 Labour MPs voted against the government over restoring the link between pensions and earnings.

'Grudging'

A series of amendments to the Freedom of Information Bill have been tabled by Labour, Liberal Democrat and Tory MPs questioning powers to limit access to information under the legislation, which was a manifesto commitment by Labour.

The MPs also want to change the bill to prevent ministers withholding the advice they have been given and remove the right of ministers to veto the release of information.

Jack Straw: Faces rebellion

Opponents of the bill also want to remove the blanket ban on releasing information during public investigations, such as the inquiry into the sinking of the Marchioness or the Clapham rail crash.

Former Labour minister Mark Fisher told MPs there was a grudging tone to the content of the bill.

He said: "We must hold to a general presumption in favour of the right to know.

"I fear that at the moment there is a tone running through this bill which is grudging.

"Wherever there is a balance to be drawn between the rights of the public authority to withhold information or the rights of an applicant to have access to that information - time and again this bill comes down in favour of the public authority rather than the applicant."

But Home Office Minister Mike O'Brien said the bill contained the right balance.

'Public interest'

"The right of access to information must be balanced against the rights of confidentiality and privacy," he said.

He argued that it was not desirable to "disturb" the balance of the bill as a whole or to bring it into conflict with the Human Rights Act.

"Where there's a public interest in a matter being open ... the public authority will be obliged to make that information public," he said.

Conservative Richard Shepherd attacked the government for the large difference between the details of the bill before the House and the original white paper.

Liberal Democrat constitution spokesman Robert Maclennan said MPs were right to be suspicious of the government's intentions.

"It is because that balance has now been erected as the principle underlying the bill and not openness, and the presumption of openness, that I think we are right to be extremely suspicious about what the government is now minded to do."

The Home Office bill contrasts greatly with freedom of information proposals in the devolved assemblies.

In Wales, First Secretary of the Welsh assembly, Rhodri Morgan, has pledged to publish cabinet minutes on the internet six weeks after every meeting.

And in Scotland, ministers have pledged that their legislation will be more radical than that in England and will be designed to "end the culture of secrecy" in the civil service.