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Coroners and Justice Bill

I thank my noble friend for moving his amendment so powerfully. Section 77 of the Freedom of Information Act makes it an offence to alter, deface, block, erase, destroy or conceal records with the intent to prevent the disclosure of information which a requester would have been entitled to receive from the public authority under Section 1 of that Act or Section 7 of the Data Protection Act. The effect of Section 127(1) of the Magistrates Courts Act 1980 is that a prosecution must be commenced, ""within 6 months from the time the offence was committed"." My noble friend’s amendment would extend the time period to prosecute to six months from the date that the prosecutor has knowledge of sufficient evidence to justify commencing a prosecution, and in any event within three years of the commission of the offence. The Freedom of Information Act 2000 came into force only in 2005, and I have to tell my noble friend that we have no evidence at present that the current six-month time limit presents a systemic problem for the Information Commissioner or any other prosecutor in taking action under Section 77. However, I shall say this, which I hope will give my noble friend some comfort. We will listen to the views of the Information Commissioner and other interested parties on this point, and if there is evidence that the current legislation is causing systemic difficulties, we will look for ways to address the matter, if necessary by means of an alternative legislative vehicle in the future. However, I cannot go further than that today on behalf of the Government.