I know that Ministers are committed to making government more transparent, so taxpayers can hold the state to account both on how their money is being spent and how decisions are made which affect their lives.

The Freedom of Information Act is one of the pillars on which open government operates, so both I and the Government are committed to supporting it. Yet after more than a decade in operation, I believe it was appropriate to review, in the whole, how it has operated in practice, and establish how its mechanisms could be improved.

This is why the Government established an independent, cross-party Commission on Freedom of Information. I am pleased that the Commission has now published its report, and the Government has given its preliminary views on some of the most salient recommendations. The Government will carefully consider the Commission’s other recommendations, and I will follow the matter with interest.