Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill

The Minister says that the Government have taken a neutral stance on the Bill. Later, there will be opportunities to vote for amendments to the Bill. The amendment moved by the hon. Member for Lewes (Norman Baker) would remove the reference to the entirety of Members’ correspondence, not only the type of correspondence that has been the subject of debate—correspondence about individual constituents. Alternative amendments offer an opportunity to exclude that type of private correspondence. Will the Minister enable the House to understand whether the Government might take the opportunity to support one of those alternative amendments, so that Members can be confident that confidential matters relating to their constituents will be protected, but that material on matters of public policy on which they correspond with public authorities will be available to be revealed in public—something that all of us as Members of Parliament should be prepared to allow?