Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 11:31 am on 17 May 2007.
The business of the House for the week commencing
The provisional business for the week commencing
I want to make two brief statements. First, I draw Members' attention to the fact that the House agreed last night the dates appointed for the tabling and answering of written questions and for any written ministerial statements in September. We will remind the House about that in due course, but questions can be tabled on 3, 5 and
Last week, in answer to a question from my hon. Friend Mr. Winnick on freedom of information, I made comments in which I said that
"the way that some journalists and the Information Commissioner are acting means that" the intention of the Freedom of Information Act
"is not being met in practice".—[ Hansard, 10 May 2007; Vol. 460, c. 298.]
Those remarks reflected a general concern that I have about the scope of some of the decisions interpreting the Act, but my comments were ambiguous and could have implied that the Information Commissioner had made rulings on the issue of MPs' correspondence or that he was acting in some way beyond his statutory responsibilities. He has not done that in any way, and he has made no rulings in respect of MPs' correspondence.
If I may say so, the commissioner, Richard Thomas, does a difficult job very well. I would like to offer my sincere apologies to him.