Clamping down on Freedom of Information incompatible with open Government

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Fri 30th Mar 2007

Commenting on today's announcement from the Government that they will further consult on the proposals to amend the Freedom of Information regulations, Liberal Democrat Shadow Constitutional Affairs Secretary, Simon Hughes MP said:

"Hopefully today's decision to postpone changes in fees for Freedom of Information applications is an early sign of a later climb down.

"It is not possible for the Government to argue that it wants more open government and then make it more difficult to find out potentially embarrassing facts and figures."