Results 1-20 of 43 for "freedom of information" speaker:Mark Fisher

Orders of the Day: Clause 1 — Exemption of House of Commons and House of Lords (18 May 2007)

Mark Fisher: ...to the other place. We are saying to the public that although we only recently passed an important piece of legislation, which should be a terrific jewel in the crown of the Government, to introduce freedom of information in this country at last—a measure that has been in force only two and a half years—we are now moving to exempt Parliament and Members of Parliament from the...

Orders of the Day: Clause 1 — Exemption of House of Commons and House of Lords (18 May 2007)

Mark Fisher: ...the promoter spoke in its favour for the first time in the past half hour. Those four hours will overturn and undermine years of thought, expertise and agonising in respect of the quality of the freedom of information legislation that we should have in this country.

Orders of the Day: Clause 1 — Exemption of House of Commons and House of Lords (18 May 2007)

Mark Fisher: I am grateful for my hon. Friend's intervention. Of course I have read the Committee's proceedings. They make my point that this country has had 15 years of expert thinking about freedom of information legislation, whereas I believe that the Committee sat for exactly one hour—one hour's consideration was given. The right hon. Member for Penrith and The Border praises the Committee, but...

Orders of the Day: Clause 1 — Exemption of House of Commons and House of Lords (18 May 2007)

Mark Fisher: ...at certain times. I am not sure how familiar with such legislation throughout the world the right hon. Member for Penrith and The Border is. However, he makes the wider point that Parliaments handle freedom of information in different ways. Some freedom of information legislation covers parliamentarians, while some does not. It is a matter for each Parliament to decide. However, we have...

Orders of the Day: Clause 1 — Exemption of House of Commons and House of Lords (18 May 2007)

Mark Fisher: ...what an enormously dramatic thing he is doing and how completely he is undermining existing legislation. As my hon. Friend the Member for Newcastle upon Tyne, Central (Jim Cousins) suggests, the Freedom of Information Act 2000 goes wider than the issue that the right hon. Member for Penrith and The Border is addressing, yet much of it must go through the conduit of parliamentarians. If we...

Orders of the Day: Clause 1 — Exemption of House of Commons and House of Lords (18 May 2007)

Mark Fisher: But chief constables, health authorities and other public bodies are not. Why should they struggle to try to work out what is left of the Freedom of Information Act if we are exempting ourselves?

Orders of the Day: Clause 1 — Exemption of House of Commons and House of Lords (18 May 2007)

Mark Fisher: ...decided to go around the sort of problems that the right hon. Member for Penrith and The Border has identified in a different way—to lock together the data protection legislation and the freedom of information legislation and so deal with sensitive and difficult areas of confidentiality and related issues. We could have chosen to make a blanket exemption for Parliament, as some other...

Orders of the Day: Clause 1 — Exemption of House of Commons and House of Lords (18 May 2007)

Mark Fisher: ...spoken to him privately and anecdotally, saying, "We're very worried. I have a particularly nasty constituency case here." I am sure that they have and that such cases exist, but that is because the Freedom of Information Act is new legislation—only two and a half years old—and the people in local authorities and other public bodies who are applying it have not yet learned how...

Orders of the Day: Clause 1 — Exemption of House of Commons and House of Lords (18 May 2007)

Mark Fisher: ...and objectivity, that we are fearless in pursuing matters on their behalf, and that we wish our actions to be open and transparent. The Bill yet again shoves under the carpet everything to do with freedom of information in this House. I do not think that the right hon. Member for Penrith and The Border understands, from his viewpoint in Penrith, that people will be aghast. When the public...

Orders of the Day: Clause 1 — Exemption of House of Commons and House of Lords (18 May 2007)

Mark Fisher: ...a total difference between this House volunteering, out of its own good will and courtesy to the public, to publish these expenses, and what is in a Bill. Through his Bill, he would be changing the Freedom of Information Act 2000 so that we are exempt and do not in law have to publish such things. The fact that we have an assurance from the current Speaker that he will continue with...

Orders of the Day: Clause 1 — Exemption of House of Commons and House of Lords (18 May 2007)

Mark Fisher: ...Richard Thomas, who has not had a single complaint or query from any Member of Parliament? Indeed, he does not recognise the issue as a problem. If he does not—and he probably knows more about freedom of information and data protection than anybody else in the country—and his office has not been bombarded with complaints, what on earth is the Bill about? It is a Bill to solve a...

Freedom of Information (Fees Regulation) (7 Feb 2007)

Mark Fisher: ...would be elected at the polls that year and who therefore had an excellent, fully drafted Bill in their hands. Thanks to the great amount of advice that they received from bodies such as the Campaign for Freedom of Information, they learned—as the world had done over the previous 10 years from Australia, New Zealand and Canada—which parts of freedom of information legislation...

Freedom of Information (Fees Regulation) (7 Feb 2007)

Mark Fisher: In the interests of freedom of information, let me say that those people are well known. They know who they are, as does anybody who has taken an interest in this subject. However, the issue was not the individuals; some of the Ministers around that table, like the Minister with us today, had long, honourable and interesting records. None the less, the Government's overall attitude was...

Orders of the Day — Local Government Bill [Lords] (11 Apr 2000)

Mr Mark Fisher: ...rights that the public have enjoyed to call bodies to account and to get access to information. The Bill will bypass those rights, which will not exist unless we can amend it, as we ought to. The Freedom of Information Bill—which we debated at great length and not entirely happily last week—applies to local authorities, but sadly does not help much in this respect. Under the...

Orders of the Day — Freedom of Information Bill: Power to Confer Additional Exemptions by Order (5 Apr 2000)

Mr Mark Fisher: ...what happened last night or the current state of the Bill. As my hon. Friend the Member for Cannock Chase (Dr. Wright) said when speaking to Government amendment No. 64, the final say in all freedom of information legislation is crucial. Although every piece of freedom of information legislation has exemptions, barriers and caveats—those are in the nature of this type of...

Orders of the Day — Freedom of Information Bill: Information Supplied by, or Relating to, Bodies Dealing with Security Matters (5 Apr 2000)

Mr Mark Fisher: ...that has taken place. However, my hon. Friend seems to be sliding into the misunderstanding that has bedevilled debate on the Bill in Committee and now on Report, confusing greater openness with freedom of information. The Government have been much more open in this area, as were the previous Government. That is welcome, but it is quite different from what we are doing through the...

Orders of the Day — Freedom of Information Bill: Discretionary Disclosures (5 Apr 2000)

Mr Mark Fisher: ...between those facts and the debate, to which the hon. Member for Somerton and Frome has just referred, between Ministers, and between Ministers and civil servants, about how policy will work. No freedom of information legislation in the world gives access to that debate, because the Government's progress would be impeded if that dialogue were not free to be speculative and political. The...

Orders of the Day — Freedom of Information Bill: General Right of Access to Information Held by Public Authorities (4 Apr 2000)

Mr Mark Fisher: ...passed under the last Conservative Government. They have not been grasped and taken up by individuals. That does not mean that they are not important. It just puts greater onus on us to make the Freedom of Information Bill, which is the parent of all those Acts and brings them together, work; to learn the lessons at last of why the other Acts have not been taken up by people, as they...

Orders of the Day — Freedom of Information Bill: General Right of Access to Information Held by Public Authorities (4 Apr 2000)

Mr Mark Fisher: .... However, he should be able to listen to his own words. Although he said that he wants a cultural change, almost everything that he has said in replying to the debate has been apprehensive about freedom of information and fearful of what will happen. He has been reluctant—

Orders of the Day — Freedom of Information Bill: General Right of Access to Information Held by Public Authorities (4 Apr 2000)

Mr Mark Fisher: ...it has been introduced. There is a difficult balance between the rights of good government and people's right to know, a point understood on both sides of the Chamber and by anyone who has studied freedom of information legislation. The principles are simple and clear, but achievement of freedom of information is difficult. To get the balance right while maintaining as the spine of...