Liberal Democrats wants to extend freedom of information rules

Via the Financial Times comes the news:

Water companies, the “Big Six” energy suppliers and housing associations would be forced to open their books to the public under Liberal Democrat proposals…

Simon Hughes, the Lib Dem justice minister, is also pressing for private sector contracts delivering public services to be subject to the Freedom of Information Act…

Key private sector com­panies that are mono­polistic or “surrogate public authority providers” would be subjected to greater public scrutiny under the proposals.

However, the junior coalition partner’s attempts to extend FOI more broadly hit an unexpected hurdle this week after Downing Street blocked attempts to apply the rules to Network Rail.

This issue will also feature in the party’s Public Services policy paper, will get debated at the Liberal Democrat conference in Glasgow this October.