ABSTRACT
Freedom of information statutes are important because they dismantle governmental secrecy by granting individuals access to information. As during the debates on the national level for freedom of information legislation, MPs argued that such a bill must be enacted as a matter of principle because open government is an essential right of all citizens. Fisher leaned heavily on the experiences of Australia and Canada, both of which introduced freedom of information legislation in 1982 and have parliamentary and judicial systems similar to Britain. The idea of freedom of information legislation went from being strongly criticized in 1970, with concerns over high costs and administrative burdens, to being widely accepted by the time Freud introduced his Official Information Bill in 1980. Blair has already contemplated and addressed reforms of Britain's information technology in the Labour manifesto, linking such reforms to freedom of information legislation.
