Derek McDowell (Labour)

I move amendment No. 19:

In page 8, between lines 38 and 39 to insert the following:

12.–Section 17 of the Principal Act is amended in subsection (5) by the deletion of "under this Act".

This refers to the Information Commissioner's report and deals with section 17 of the original Act. It allows requesters to require the amendment of records in circumstances where records become available outside of the FOI Act. The commissioner points out in his report that some records become available because of requests made under section 7 of the Act. There is a provision that allows requesters to require the amendment of personal information held about them by public bodies. In circumstances where they might obtain information outside the specific provisions of this Act, there is no such provision available to them and they cannot require the amendment of those records. The commissioner suggests that we should amend the Act to allow for that to happen. This is the purpose of this amendment.