It also makes the destruction or alteration of documents a criminal offence. The first information commissioner is expected to be Elizabeth France, the present privacy commissioner. Future appointments will be decided by open competition and the bill provides for a second commissioner should public demand for the new rights grow. The government estimates that the new measure will cost between 90m and 125m a year and that some 190,000 people a year will use their new rights to obtain information. Under the draft bill the commissioner will be able to overturn decisions by government departments to refuse information but both members of the public and the authority can challenge this by appealing to a new tribunal.
People can appeal to the courts on a tribunal ruling but only on a point of law.
The bill also says that where a public authority has a discretion to release information in the public interest and refuses to do so this cannot be challenged by the commissioner. The new draft bill is less radical than the white paper, Your Right to Know, published last year. The bill also gives the power to the home secretary to increase the number of exemptions and to repeal secrecy clauses in other bills. Laws forbidding the disclosure of information in seven areas radioactive substances, river pollution, airports, railways, civil defence, factories and shop and office premises are to be repealed. Most of the new information available to the public will affect schools, health authorities, the prison service and the administration of the police.