We show below which MPs supported or opposed David Maclean’s Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill on April 20th when its report stage was first debated and on May 18th when the debate was completed and the bill was passed by the House of Commons. Many MPs did not vote at all, probably because they were not in Westminster on the days in question.

What were the votes about?

There was one important vote in the House of Commons on April 20th. This was to:

• Delete the part of the bill that would remove the House of Commons and the House of Lords from the FOI Act (Division 95). This amendment was defeated by 46 votes to 6.

What is a ‘closure motion’?

A private member’s bill cannot be voted on if MPs are still continuing to debate it when time for debate on the day runs out. This allows the opponents of a bill to block it by ‘talking it out’. This is what happened when the bill was first debated at its ‘report stage’ in the Commons on April 20. An all-party group of opponents, consisting of Norman Baker (Lib Dem), Simon Hughes (Lib Dem), David Winnick (Lab) and Richard Shepherd (Con) kept the debate going from 9.30 am to 2.30 pm.

The debate then had to be resumed at a later date, on May 18th. The bill’s opponents planned to talk it out again.

However, MPs can be prevented from ‘talking out’ a bill if the House of Commons votes for a motion to close the debate. This so-called ‘closure motion’ has to be backed by at least 100 MPs.

The bill’s supporters urged as many MPs as possible to attend the debate so that at least 100 voted for a closure motion. A key part was played by the committee of the Parliamentary Labour Party which wrote to all Labour MPs urging them to attend to support the bill. You can read a copy of their email here.

The closure motion was supported by 117 MPs and opposed by only 22. This was the critical vote which guaranteed that the bill could not be talked out. Some of the MPs who voted for this motion didn’t go on to vote for the bill itself. However, by voting for the closure motion, they prevented it from being talked out.

Position
(see key at end)

3rd reading
(Div 123)

Closure motion
(Div 122)

For 117
Against 22

Amendment 40
(Div 121)

For 32
Against 96

Amendment 2
(Div 120)

For 33
Against 100

Amendment 1
(Div 95)

For 6
Against 46

Against

The Campaign's briefings together with press and other comment on the Maclean Bill can be found here.

Campaign for Freedom of Information • 020 7831 7477 • Email • Support