Hansard

Departments: Disclosure of Information

Volume 463: debated on Monday 10 September 2007

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Mr. Hoban

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) pursuant to the answer of 4 July 2007, Official Report, column 1066W, on Departments: disclosure of information, on how many occasions his Department has used a section 36 exemption to withhold information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 that was agreed by the departmental Minister; (153453)

(2) pursuant to the answer of 4 July 2007, Official Report, column 1066W, on Departments: disclosure of information, who his Department's departmental Minister was on (a) 1 January 2007 and (b) 5 July 2007;

(3) pursuant to the answer of 16 July 2007, Official Report, column 66W, on Departments: freedom of information and the Ministry of Justice aggregated statistics, what information has been requested of his Department under the Act in the last six months.

Angela Eagle

The Ministry of Justice produces an annual report on FOI in central Government, which includes a table summarising the use of exemptions by each Department. The report for 2006 was published in June 2007.

The departmental Minister for HM Treasury on 1 January 2007 was Financial Secretary, Mr. John Healey. As Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury since 2 July, my responsibilities include those of departmental Minister.

The Treasury has had around 3,000 FOI requests since January 2005; it would exceed the costs limit to provide lists of the requests made to HMT. HMT meets the reporting standards agreed by the then Department for Constitutional Affairs with the House.