BBC - Open Secrets: Government plans FOI restrictions

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Government plans FOI restrictions

Post categories: Cabinet, Private sector, Thirty year rule

Martin Rosenbaum | 16:18 PM, Wednesday, 10 June 2009

The government is planning to introduce important new restrictions on access to cabinet and royal papers under freedom of information.

Under the new plans, cabinet papers would be absolutely exempt from FOI for a period of 20 years. This would include records relating to cabinet sub-committees.

This would be significantly tighter than the current position, where for most cabinet documents the decision on whether to release them depends on the "public interest test" - whether it is more in the public interest to disclose them in response to an FOI request or to keep them secret.

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