Derek McDowell (Labour)

We had just started our discussion of amendment No. 20 which, in effect, seeks to delete section 12, one of the two most important sections of the Bill and which provided the pretext for the review which the Government carried out in the first instance. Like others on this side of the House, I am not particularly exercised about when Cabinet papers should be released as I accept the principle that the Government should have space for a full and frank debate which as far as possible should be unconstrained by the risk that something said or written might be revealed immediately or during the decision making process. What we do not accept, however, is the extension of the provision into a range of other areas.

This section, for example, provides for a mandatory refusal to disclose records of Government within the ten year period. Section 19 of the original Act allowed the Secretary General or the person making the decision some discretion as to whether a memo to Government or Government papers should be released. As I understand it, this discretion was little used in that memos to Government were rarely, if ever, released but, at least, the principle was provided for that if it was considered to be in the public interest, such information could be released. By making it mandatory the Government is seeking to close off any possibility that information of that kind will be made available during the decision making process.