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Boris Johnson’s government slammed by MPs over FOI 'Clearing House' secrecy

Parliamentary inquiry launched in the wake of openDemocracy's revelations condemns Cabinet Office's handling of Freedom of Information requests

By Jenna Corderoy
Boris Johnson’s government slammed by MPs over FOI 'Clearing House' secrecy
An inquiry called for a 'cultural shift' towards transparency in government.
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Boris Johnson must reverse the government’s worrying “slide away from transparency”, an excoriating parliamentary report warns today.

Commissioned in the wake of a string of revelations by openDemocracy about a secretive Freedom of Information (FOI) 'Clearing House' within the Cabinet Office, the report is the harshest official criticism levelled at the government over transparency since the landmark FOI Act was passed in 2000.

MPs on the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee (PACAC) said the Cabinet Office had “dragged its feet for too long” and called for the UK’s information watchdog to be hauled in for a “rigorous” review.

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