Mr. Vara: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions on how many occasions in the last 12 months Ministers in his Department have used their discretion to rule that a parliamentary question for written answer should be answered because it would be in the public interest to do so, even though to do so would exceed the disproportionate cost threshold of £700.Translation: "It will cost too much and it is not in the public interest to tell you how often we have answered a question in the public interest even if it cost too much"
Jonathan Shaw: The information requested is not collated centrally and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
Like I say, sheer class. Quality. Superb. The Logic of Kings!
3 comments:
"Jonathan Shaw: The information requested is not collated centrally and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost."
Now they can print money in any old government office, should not be a problem.
For those of us with memories of the stage performances of Lucan and McShane as Old Mother Riley and Kitty, the "logic" is entirely familiar. Kitty (McShane)would ask as simple or straight question, and her stage mother, Riley (Arthur Lucan) would come out with a long complex answer, that had an apparent logic, but to the whole of the audience was utterly screamingly daft. Perhaps we should call this kind of thing the Old Mother Riley strategy.
Jack Straw February this year - "The Freedom of Information Act has profoundly changed the relationship between citizens, and their elected representatives and the media on the one hand, and the Government and public authorities on the other. It has, as intended, made the Executive far more open and accountable. The Act provides a regime for freedom of information which is one of the most open and rigorous in the world."
Ha, ha, ha... It's the way he tells them.
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