Mr. Simon Carswell:

I do not believe there should be any reluctance. I think the communications of civil servants should be open to the public even with the passage of time. I know there is the 30-year rule for State papers for example and obviously there are certain issues which require Cabinet confidentiality but as I said in my opening statement, I think sunlight is good medicine. I think transparency is very important. To get an understanding of what actually happened I think it is important to have contemporaneous access to decisions that are made by Government. When I try to find out information on things that are going on at a particular point in time it is very difficult and freedom of information provides an opportunity or channel to get it, but this is a question I raised about a particular institution, a bank, that there is no transparency. We do not know the process around, "Well, what about that line or this line?" What is the process around why I have been denied access to that information? I think the fact that we do not know makes it even more difficult. I think those concerns that it leads to people not taking notes have been overplayed.