UK Government cuts 30-year rule and looks to extend FoI

Government cuts 30-year rule and looks to extend FoI

10 June 2009
By Paul McNally, and PA Mediapoint

• 30-year-rule to be cut to 20 years
• Tim Berners-Lee to help open up government data online
• Freedom of Information could be extended

The length of time government records are kept secret is to be cut from 30 to 20 years as part of a series of reforms announced today.

Gordon Brown said today that he had asked internet guru Sir Tim Berners-Lee to "help us drive the opening up of access to government data on the web".

He also said that justice secretary Jack Straw was considering whether the scope of the Freedom of Information Act should be extended to further bodies which spend public money.

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