Freedom of Information (Time for Compliance with Request) Regulations 2009

I suspect that the Freedom of Information Act 2000 was one of those Acts that the Government rushed into that they now have concerns about on occasion, as sometimes information is dragged out of them less willingly than it ought to be under the spirit of the Act. I say no more about that, because we do not object to the regulations in any sense. However, they give me the opportunity to put two questions to the Minister. First, when the Minister in another place dealt with the regulations, he said that—the noble Lord repeated the figures—the vast majority of requests were dealt with in a timely manner. The figure cited in another place was that 82 per cent were dealt with within the time limit, which means, if my maths are right, that 18 per cent were not dealt with within the time limit. I would therefore be grateful if the Minister could remind the Committee what sanctions are available to encourage public bodies and all others who are obliged to respond within the 20 days to meet that target and what further action the Government will be taking to improve their performance. My second question concerns what further changes the Government might be considering. In response to that question, the Minister in another place said that they were consulting on that and expected to give the result of that consultation shortly. Can the noble Lord say anything more at this stage? In particular, what is meant by "shortly"? I recall that some years ago my noble friend Lord Newton of Braintree, who was here earlier, announced that we would produce something "later in the spring". We had to somewhat stretch the meaning of "spring" when we published our response in July. Whenever a government Minister or department uses the word "shortly", one feels that it is worth asking what they mean by it and when they hope to report.