Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill — Continue to disclose MPs' correspondence — rejected — 18 May 2007 at 11:30
The majority of MPs voted against changing the proposed Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill (designed to remove Parliament and MPs from the power of the Freedom of Information Act 2000) to not include the exemption for MPs' correspondence.
The Bill was to add the following Freedom of Information exemption:
- Information is exempt information if it consists of correspondence between a Member of Parliament and a public authority, as listed in Schedule 1 of this Act.
- The duty to confirm or deny does not arise in relation to information which is exempt information by virtue of this section.
The proposal, which MPs voted against, would have deleted this provision, and kept only the part which prevented the Freedom of Information laws from applying to Parliament (and to MPs' expenses). But since the official purpose of this Bill was to protect MPs' correspondence (as opposed to the actual reason of hiding their expenses) they had to vote to keep it.
The vote to start discussion on this amendment was made in Division 119.
Party Summary
Votes by party, red entries are votes against the majority for that party.
What is Tell? '+1 tell' means that in addition one member of that party was a teller for that division lobby.
What are Boths? An MP can vote both aye and no in the same division. The boths page explains this.
What is Turnout? This is measured against the total membership of the party at the time of the vote.
| Party | Majority (No) | Minority (Aye) | Both | Turnout |
| Con | 22 (+1 tell) | 5 | 0 | 14.3% |
| Lab | 78 (+1 tell) | 14 | 0 | 26.4% |
| LDem | 0 | 13 (+2 tell) | 0 | 23.8% |
| PC | 0 | 1 | 0 | 33.3% |
| Total: | 100 | 33 | 0 | 22.3% |
Rebel Voters - sorted by party
MPs for which their vote in this division differed from the majority vote of their party. You can see all votes in this division, or every eligible MP who could have voted in this division
Sort by: Name | Constituency | Party | Vote
| Name | Constituency | Party | Vote |
| James Clappison | Hertsmere | Con (front bench) | aye |
| Philip Hollobone | Kettering | Con (front bench) | aye |
| John Maples | Stratford-on-Avon | Con (front bench) | aye |
| John Redwood | Wokingham | Con | aye |
| Richard Shepherd | Aldridge-Brownhills | Con (front bench) | aye |
| Jeremy Corbyn | Islington North | Lab | aye |
| Jim Cousins | Newcastle upon Tyne Central | Lab (minister) | aye |
| Frank Field | Birkenhead | Lab (minister) | aye |
| Mark Fisher | Stoke-on-Trent Central | Lab | aye |
| Kate Hoey | Vauxhall | Lab | aye |
| Glenda Jackson | Hampstead and Highgate | Lab | aye |
| Gerald Kaufman | Manchester, Gorton | Lab (minister) | aye |
| Sally Keeble | Northampton North | Lab (minister) | aye |
| Martin Linton | Battersea | Lab (minister) | aye |
| Fiona Mactaggart | Slough | Lab (minister) | aye |
| Dan Norris | Wansdyke | Lab (minister) | aye |
| Barry Sheerman | Huddersfield | Lab (minister) | aye |
| Peter Soulsby | Leicester South | Lab (minister) | aye |
| David Winnick | Walsall North | Lab (minister) | aye |