The Prime Minister was quizzed on whether private companies receiving public money should be subject to the Freedom of Information laws at his weekly question and answer session.

He was questioned on the accountability of private healthcare companies to the public, as they are not subject to the Freedom of Information Act, by Labour MP Grahame Morris.

Morris has been campaigning to get private healthcare providers, and other companies who receive public money, to be subject to the Act. At present he has a 10 minute rule bill in Parliament which is seeking to extend the Act to include the companies. 

This is what Cameron had to say on the matter:

Obviously, I will look carefully at the individual case that the hon. Gentleman raised, but this Government are putting £12.7 billion into the NHS. I do not believe that we should say that other organisations cannot help to deliver NHS services. If we look at Hinchingbrooke hospital in Cambridge, it is now providing much better services because of the changes that we have made. I shall look at what he said about freedom of information requests, but it is important that we have a health service that can access the best of public, private and voluntary.

Yeah, it wasn’t really an answer.

You can read the full exchange here.

I am a journalist and author. I am a journalist at the UK edition of WIRED magazine. In 2015, my first book Freedom of Information: A Practical Guide for UK Journalists, was published. My second book Reed Hastings: Building Netflix, was published in March 2020. I created FOI Directory in 2012 and have maintained it in my spare time ever since.