Results 1-20 of 23 for "freedom of information" speaker:Alan Beith

Oral Answers to Questions — Work and Pensions: Speaker's Statement (11 May 2009)

Alan Beith: ...been suggested in some quarters that the use of an outside body to check the receipts and the auditing, which seems to me a desirable thing, would in some way exempt those from the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act. My assumption is that that is simply not the case. Have you been advised accordingly, and can you confirm that?

Bills Presented — Business Rate Supplements Bill: Home Affairs and Justice (4 Dec 2008) has video

Alan Beith: ...a young figure the Prime Minister cut, but we all remember him in those days. Clearly, all Governments have to ensure that they can conduct their business, but they now do so within a framework of freedom of information, where they need to be a little less sensitive about information, much of which could be claimed as public under the Freedom of Information Act in any case. When situations...

Written Answers — Communities and Local Government: Members: Correspondence (18 Feb 2008)

Alan Beith: ...and Local Government what the reasons are for the time taken to reply to the letter from the right hon. Member for Berwick-upon-Tweed of (a) 16 October and (b) 4 December 2007 relating to a freedom of information request from Mr. M. Maud of Ancroft, Berwick-upon-Tweed.

Orders of the Day: Home Affairs and Justice (7 Nov 2007)

Alan Beith: ...of the other issues arising from the Government's constitutional agenda. I am very pleased that, at long last, the Government have abandoned their crazy scheme to use fees as a proxy to restrict the freedom of information regime. That would have been seriously damaging, and would have prevented the complex of FOI requests that often enable us to get at the real truth of whether something...

Oral Answers to Questions — Solicitor-General: Governance of Britain (25 Oct 2007) has video

Alan Beith: I welcome the Government's acceptance of the Constitutional Affairs Committee's view that freedom of information should not be restricted by new charges and that confirmation hearings for judges would be a bad idea, but why does the consultation paper not take account of the wide extent to which judges, from the Lord Chief Justice down to local magistrates, now appear before the Committee and...

Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill (Programme) (No. 3): Clause 5 — Boundary Committee's powers (24 Oct 2007) has video

Alan Beith: I want to be frank with the Minister. Under the Freedom of Information Act, he has released a copy of all the responses that I received. I cannot imagine that he has read every one of them and would not expect him to. I expect that he has been given a piece of paper analysing—although not necessarily giving advice about—the conclusions of the responses. I want to be sure that that...

Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill (Programme) (No. 3): Clause 5 — Boundary Committee's powers (24 Oct 2007)

Alan Beith: One of the reasons why the hon. Gentleman has not seen the analysis is that when I made a freedom of information request to the Department in respect of the analysis of the consultation the Government had undertaken—the sort of consultation that is envisaged in the measure under discussion—the Government claimed exemption under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. I must now...

Petitions: References (21 Jun 2006)

Alan Beith: ...regional council as an assistant head teacher at Duns primary school for 12 years. Subsequent to that employment, in 1988 he applied for a teaching post elsewhere but was unsuccessful. Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 he has obtained the file on his case held by the local authority. It includes the reference sent by the assistant director of education to the head of the school to...

Oral Answers to Questions — Deputy Prime Minister: Public Appointments (Women) (9 Jan 2002)

Mr Alan Beith: ..., such as Elizabeth France, the information commissioner, who has indicated that she is not seeking reappointment, as her four-year term of office would not have enabled her at any stage to use the freedom of information powers due to the Government's delay? Do not the Government need to be seen to support those women who take on public appointments?

Orders of the Day — Freedom of Information Bill (7 Dec 1999)

Mr Alan Beith: ...to give the Bill a Second Reading and that would prevent the House from reaching those parts and amending them. Is that her serious intention, or is it a device to enable those Tories who think that freedom of information is for left-wing busybodies to vote in the same Lobby as those who think that it is a good idea but that the Bill is defective in some respects?

Stephen Lawrence Inquiry (29 Mar 1999)

Mr Alan Beith: ...they are, are not an argument for the rather curious and confused pattern that is summed up in the phrase "a more active role". That seems to be a recipe for not having sufficient accountability. Freedom of information is another area where there is some difference between what the report says and what the Government are saying. The report states that "all areas of policing" should be...

Oral Answers to Questions — Stephen Lawrence Inquiry (24 Feb 1999)

Mr Alan Beith: ...should have the full powers available to other police authorities to hold the Metropolitan police accountable. That goes beyond what the Government are proposing. Recommendation 9 says That a Freedom of Information Act should apply to all areas of policing, both operational and administrative, subject only to the `substantial harm' test". Recommendation 58 says that serious complaints...

Opposition Day: Government Information (13 Jan 1999)

Mr Alan Beith: ...that the public interest is in having far greater access to the information used by Government in making decisions which affect people's lives; and calls upon the Government to introduce its draft Freedom of Information Bill as a matter of the highest priority to enable early consideration, to present such a Bill later this Session which can be carried over into the next Session of...

Opposition Day: Government Information (13 Jan 1999)

Mr Alan Beith: ...public actually want is rarely the kind of information that press officers are briefed to provide. It is information that they are denied by the operation of official secrecy and the absence of a freedom of information Act. Gulf war veterans want to know to what health risks they were subject and what tests are or are not being carried out on their exposure to depleted uranium, yet that...

Oral Answers to Questions — Home Department: Freedom of Information (30 Nov 1998)

Mr Alan Beith: Has not the information that is emerging about the handling of the bovine spongiform encephalopathy affair demonstrated that the public and the business community urgently need freedom of information? As a previous Minister, the right hon. Member for South Shields (Dr. Clark), said in the House that the Bill was 90 per cent. drafted, does the Home Secretary acknowledge the disappointment at...

Civil Service (22 May 1996)

Mr Alan Beith: ...and furthered the damage that has already been done. We need a whole series of reforms to protect our civil service from being further damaged and undermined. The most obvious requirement is a freedom of information Act so that the public will know when decisions were taken on the wrong basis and we will not need a Scott inquiry, except in those circumstances—which were present in...

Orders of the Day — Debate on the Address: Home Affairs and Environment (18 Nov 1994)

Mr Alan Beith: ...in the Queen's Speech, but unlike the Bills that I have already mentioned, I had no expectation that they would be included in the Speech. I refer to constitutional reform, a fair voting system, freedom of information legislation and devolution. There should also be measures to deal with the morass of appointed bodies that the Government have created in their time in office. None of that...

Prayers: Constitutional Reform (17 May 1991)

Mr Alan Beith: Ought not it to be placed on record that the Labour Government's willingness to intoduce a freedom of information Act, which they had previously failed conspicuously to do, depended entirely on the willingness of my then hon. Friend Mr. Clement Freud not to vote against them? A freedom of information Act was the price that they were prepared to pay out of desperation, at a very late stage in...

Orders of the Day — The Economy (28 Nov 1989)

Mr Alan Beith: ...of coalition Governments; decentralised power; protection for human rights and new constitutions; demonstrations in the streets; strikes; trade union activity in support of political causes; freedom of information, including press conferences given by the security forces; church leaders becoming involved in politics; challenges to the existing party leadership. The Prime Minister welcomes...

Orders of the Day — Procedure (30 Nov 1988)

Mr Alan Beith: ...was that the House should, in a few limited circumstances, have the power to decide that an important matter should be brought to a conclusion. Last year it was abortion, another year it might be freedom of information and yet another year a measure affecting the disabled. Whatever the Bill, if there has been massive public debate and the House has gone through all the procedures necessary...