Derek McDowell (Labour)

I move amendment No. 14:

In page 7, between lines 31 and 32 to insert the following

8.–Section 12 of the Principal Act is amended in subsection (2)(b)(ii) by the insertion after "concerned" of "which, in the opinion of the head, would be likely to result in significant impairment of the rights of the copyright holder".

This is a technical amendment that arises out of the Information Commissioner's report at page 76. Section 12 of the original FOI Act sets out the way in which copies can be provided to requesters, normally by photocopy. The commissioner points out that, technically, copyright could be infringed in many of theses cases. There is a lot of information technically covered by copyright. The commissioner suggested an amendment of the original Act to oblige the decision-maker to refuse only in circumstances where the copyright holder would be in some way financially endangered. I imagine that would be in a small number of cases. This is a technical amendment which I hope the Minister will accept.