The Government has established an independent cross-party commission to review the Freedom of Information Act and ensure that it is functioning as intended. So far, the public consultation on this issue has received over 30,000 submissions from individuals and campaign groups, all of which will be considered in due course.
I fully support freedom of information, as does the Government. However, I also believe that it is necessary to review current legislation, in order to ensure that the need for transparency and accountability is balanced by sufficient protections for sensitive information.
You may also be interested to know that the World Wide Web Foundation's Open Data Barometer and Open Knowledge's Global Open Data Index ranked the UK as the world's leading country on open government.
Thank you again for taking the time to highlight this issue with me. I will follow the progress of the Commission and its findings closely.