UK Parliament / Open data

[2nd Allocated Day]

Proceeding contribution from Lord Jackson of Peterborough (Conservative) in the House of Commons on Wednesday, 7 September 2011. It occurred during Debate on bills on Health and Social Care (Re-committed) Bill.

The hon. Member for Cambridge (Dr Huppert), who is currently fulfilling his role as Dr Evan Harris's vicar on earth, expressed the view that everything is fine at the moment. Does my hon. Friend share my concern that it is routine for primary care trusts absolutely to refuse to reveal the financial relationship they have—for instance, with Marie Stopes or BPAS—on the basis of commercial confidence, and that it takes freedom of information requests to get that information? The system is clearly not working, and if we want transparency and openness, things have to change.