A new Labour MP has put a motion to Parliament encouraging colleagues to extend the Freedom of Information Act to contractors.
Paula Sherriff, the MP for Dewsbury, Mirfield, Denby Dale and Kirkburton, put forward the idea as an Early Day Motion (EDM).
The Freedom of Information and Private Companies Delivering Public Contracts motion reads:
“That this House believes that private companies delivery public contracts should be subject to freedom of information requests, because at a time when public spending is under increased scrutiny, it is more important than every that spending is transparent; and further believes that it is imperative that any organisation using public funds is accountable to the taxpayer.”
Pleased to submit my first Early Day Motion 'Freedom of Information & Private Companies delivering Public Contracts' pic.twitter.com/Oil7rVJatv
— Paula Sherriff MP (@paulasherriff) June 10, 2015
It’s incredibly rare that an EDM will ever progress enough to become law but no publicity is bad publicity.
The idea of extending the FOI Act to private companies that operate under public contracts was also ruled out by the previous government that said
It’s not the first time that Labour has pushed to extend the FOI Act to private companies receiving public money. For the last few years they said they would extend the Act if they had won May’s election and a previous EDM was signed by 53 MPs.