Whitehall in rush to shred secret papers

CIVIL servants have dramatically stepped up the shredding of official documents ahead of new Freedom of Information laws coming into effect, new figures showed today.

Some Government departments, including the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), have almost doubled the number of documents destroyed since the Freedom of Information Act became law in 2000.

From January 1, it will be a criminal offence for a civil servant to destroy files with the intention of preventing their disclosure once a request to see them has been made under the Act.

The Tories today hit out at the move they described as "disturbing" and a "bonfire of historical records".

They demanded to know whether similar shredding was taking place within the Scottish Executive.

Shadow Cabinet office minister Julian Lewis discovered the increase in shredding from a series of parliamentary answers.

In 1999-2000, 52,605 DTI files were destroyed but by 2003-04 the number of documents shredded had shot up to 97,020.

It also emerged the Ministry of Defence had also nearly doubled the amount of files destroyed in the same period.

The sharpest rise was at the Department of Work and Pensions where 36,885 files were deleted last year - a massive increase from 15,524 four years ago.

The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has also stepped up the shredding of thousands of documents.

Scottish Conservatives today demanded to know whether a similar clear out was being carried out at the Scottish Executive.

Bill Aitken MSP, chief whip of the Conservatives at Holyrood, said: "Given the revelations emerging from Whitehall there is a serious question mark as to whether the Scottish Executive have been up to the same thing. We will today be tabling questions to uncover whether this is indeed the case.

"We would of course hope it is not, but there have always been concerns voiced about the Freedom of Information Act, with many people feeling it was closer to the suppression of information from the public. We would hope that nothing like this would be found north of the Border."

Mr Aitken said he would table questions in the Scottish Parliament asking for assurances that important documents in Scotland would not be destroyed.

Mr Lewis has called for an investigation by the Information Commissioner, Richard Thomas, who polices the Act in England and Wales.

Mr Lewis said: "There has been a dramatic and disturbing increase in the number of files that have been shredded.

"The steep rise in shredding in some departments is hard to account for, other than the awareness that information in these files will no longer be classified as confidential. In the past, the Government could say nothing until 30 years had elapsed.

"It looks like there has been a bonfire of historical records."

The Freedom of Information Act will give the public access to previously secret files.

On Tuesday, Mr Thomas confirmed he was looking into claims that the Cabinet Office had ordered staff to destroy e-mails before the Act comes into effect.

While trivial e-mails, such as lunch invitations, can be deleted as soon as they are no longer relevant, anything with a bearing on policy should be kept.

A Code of Practice drawn up by the Lord Chancellor, Lord Falconer, on the implementation of the Act in England and Wales set out as a starting proposition that files should generally be kept for five years before being considered for destruction and a record should be kept of the destruction of any files, said Mr Thomas.

The Freedom of Information legislation comes into effect simultaneously north and south of the Border next month.

Kevin Dunion, an environment campaigner who criticised Scotland’s new freedom of information laws for not going far enough, was eventually nominated as the independent enforcer in charge of the policy north of the Border. Mr Dunion, who was chief executive of Friends of the Earth Scotland, was the selection panel’s choice for the new post of Scottish Information Commissioner.

He is responsible for ensuring public bodies comply with the Act. He will also keep the public informed about their rights, direct ministers on their duties and produce annual reports. A provision in the Act, requiring public authorities to produce publication schemes describing information they publish proactively, has come into force for most public authorities already.

Companies and individuals will soon be able to request not only paper records, files, photographs, drawings, maps, plans, diagrams, CAD designs, schemes, records, archives, but also unstructured information held by electronic means such as e-mail messages.

As a result, public authorities including the Scottish Executive, universities, further education colleges, the NHS and the police have been transforming themselves to meet increasing public demands and political pressures to be more responsive, efficient and accountable.