Abstract
Eminent lawyer Bindman writes on how the Freedom of Information Act will come into force in January next. The Information Commissioner will then be able to demand production of information from government at any level, but his powers are circumscribed by the much criticised power of veto given to ministers over information which they consider should remain confidential in the public interest. In a speech to the Campaign for Freedom of Information in March of this year, Lord Falconer, the Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs, who has remained in charge of this legislation since he took it over as a minister in the Home Office, rejected the recommendation of a committee under Bob Phillis that ministers should renounce the use of the veto. In many areas, believes Bindman, it would be an intolerable abuse of power for the Government to use the veto that it has controversially maintained. It will surely have the sense not to do so.
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