THE whole Cabinet will have to agree any proposal by a minister to bar the release of documents under freedom of information laws, the Lord Chancellor says.

Lord Falconer of Thoroton, QC, said he expected that ministerial veto would be used only rarely to stop papers being released under the Freedom of Information Act. The Act, which comes into force today, gives ministers the ultimate power to veto the release of information.

Lord Falconer insisted that it would be used only under exceptional circumstances. He said: “That ministerial veto will be very rarely used. We have agreed that it can only be used when the whole Cabinet agree.

“If it is ever to be used, full reasons will be given to Parliament and those reasons and the use of the veto will be susceptible to judicial review.” He admitted that ministers would have to be prepared to see information released that was politically embarrassing, but said the knowledge that they would now be open to such scrutiny should produce better government.

“Embarrassment or discomfort is not a reason for not disclosing. Indeed, embarrassment or discomfort is very frequently why FoI improves government.” He said that in future ministers, local councillors and officials needed to work on the understanding that the information on which they made decisions would become public knowledge.

Lord Falconer said that, as in other countries that already have freedom of information legislation, businesses rather than the public would be the largest group seeking information. “Private businesses are keen to get information to assist their procurement bidding and to find out as much as they can about competitors.”

But he gave a warning to Whitehall departments and businesses that the costs of private-sector contracts with the public service could be made available to the public.

The Home Office is refusing to provide detailed costings of the proposed identity card scheme and some private prison operators refuse even to provide staffing levels at jails.

Lord Falconer said that merely asserting that something was commercially confidential was not enough to prevent disclosure to the public: “First, there will have to be an identification that it is genuinely confidential. It has got to be a trade secret of a genuinely commercially secret nature.”

Lord Falconer defended the increase in the number of Whitehall files being destroyed since the Freedom of Information Act was passed in 2000. In 1999-2000, for example, 54,605 files in the Department of Trade and Industry were destroyed; by 2003-04, the figure had risen to 97,021. At the Department for Work and Pensions, the figure had risen from 15,524 to 36,885. Lord Falconer said that an effect of the Act was to make Government have a much better way of managing files.

ATTACK AND DEFENCE

The Ministry of Defence has begun to release previously unpublished documents and reports covering whole areas of policy, in an attempt to pre-empt requests from the media and public under the Freedom of Information Act.

Advice about being proactive in releasing information has been issued by the Department of Constitutional Affairs to all government departments, but most ministries have merely flagged up guidelines about their responsibilities under the new Act, which comes into force today.

The MoD is expected to be inundated with requests for information, and a decision was taken to start releasing material on its website to prepare for the new culture of openness.

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