Stephen Gee, Lib Dem Wimbledon spokesman, edited version appeared in the Wimbledon Guardian, Thursday 26th May 2007

"Wimbledon's Tory MP has voted in a way that makes it likely that that freedom of information laws will no longer apply to MPs.

A Bill was pushed through the House of Commons on Friday, 18 May, with Conservative Stephen Hammond MP's tacit support.

The effect of the Bill would be to remove any obligation for details of MPs' expenses to be made public. It would also mean that members of the public would not be able to find out the advice or policy opinions that their own MP had expressed to public bodies.

Lib Dem MPs tried to make sure that the time for discussion of the Bill ran out before a vote approving it could be taken. Mr Hammond voted to finish the debate early so the Bill could be approved, and then failed to vote against the it when he had an opportunity to do so. 

The Bill will now go to the House of Lords, where Liberal Democrat Peers will try to stop it becoming law.

Supporters of the changes in the Bill say that they are concerned about preventing constituents' correspondence from being disclosed. However, letters about constituents' personal affairs which contain personal data are already exempt from freedom of information laws and are also protected by the provisions of the Data Protection Act. 

I think it's shameful that Mr Hammond has backed this attempt to water down public access to freedom of information. The Labour Government has not made any attempt to stop this law either.
 
This is unacceptable.  Of all public servants, MPs have least right to be exempt from public scrutiny. They are elected to represent our constituents' interests and to maintain high standards in public life."

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Tory Stephen Hammond MP has claimed in letters to constituents that he opposes the changes to the law in the Freeom of Information (Amendment) Bill; however, he can't or won't explain why he voted to cut the debate short (when letting the time run out was the best way to stop the Bill) nor why he failed to vote against the Bill when he had the chance. Instead, he'd prefer try to score political points by criticising the Lib Dems on his website - see  http://onlibertyonline.blogspot.com/2007/05/foi-debacle-holding-stephen-hammond-mp.html and http://www.stephenhammondmp.com/hys.asp

Ming Campbell has launched a national petition and Lords lobbying campaign over the Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill. This is the bill that would exempt Parliament from the freedom of information rules.

The Petition can be signed at www.ourcampaign.org.uk/foi