House of Commons Public Bill Committee Proceedings

House of Commons

Session 2008 - 09
Internet Publications
Other Bills before Parliament

Committee of the whole House Proceedings: 4 November 2009
483

Constitutional Reform and Governance Bill, continued

“11A
Creation of government expenditure website

(1)
The Treasury shall create, or cause to be created, a publicly searchable

website containing information about expenditure by all government

departments and executive agencies.

(2)
Expenditure which derives, directly or indirectly, from the Scottish

Consolidated Fund or the Welsh Consolidated Fund is not covered by this

Act.

(3)
Access to the information on the website must not be conditional on the

payment of any fee.

(4)
Information about expenditure by government departments or executive

agencies must be available on the website within 30 days of the date on

which the expenditure was incurred.

(5)
The information in subsection (4) must remain available for a period

ending five years after the end of the financial year in which the

expenditure was incurred.

(6)
In this Act “financial year” means the period of 12 months ending with

31 March in any year.

11B
Power of Treasury to extend website to expenditure by other bodies

(1)
The Treasury may by regulations require any body or person in the public

sector which receives funding directly or indirectly from a government

department or executive agency to provide information about its

expenditure for inclusion on the website in the same way as that required

for government departments or executive agencies.

(2)
A person or body is in the public sector for the purposes of this section if

the Office for National Statistics classifies it to the public sector in the

national accounts.

11C
Power of Treasury to specify content and availability of website

(1)
The Treasury may by regulations specify the content and availability of

the website required by section 1 including, but not limited to—

(a)
the times during which the website must be available for public

access;

(b)
the nature of the information that must be made available; and

(c)
the use of classification or coding systems in order to facilitate

analysis of the expenditure.

(2)
The regulations may require different information to be made available

for items of expenditure above one or more specified thresholds.

11D
Exempt information

(1)
This Act does not require information to be made available on the

website if its availability would, or would be likely to, prejudice—

(a)
national security;

(b)
the defence of the British Isles or of any colony;

(c)
the capability, effectiveness or security of the armed forces of the

Crown and any forces cooperating with those forces; or

(d)
relations between the United Kingdom and any other State,

international organisation or international court.

Committee of the whole House Proceedings: 4 November 2009
484

Constitutional Reform and Governance Bill, continued

(2)
In this section—

“international court” means any international court which is not an

international organisation and which is established—

(a)
by a resolution of an international organisation of which the

United Kingdom is a member, or

(b)
by an international agreement to which the United Kingdom is a

party;

“international organisation” means any international organisation whose

members include any two or more States, or any organ of such an

organisation;

“State” includes the government of any State and any organ of its

government, and references to a State other than the United Kingdom

include references to any territory outside the United Kingdom.

11E
Data Protection Act

Nothing in this Act authorises the processing, obtaining, holding, use or

disclosure of information in contravention of the Data Protection Act

1998 (c. 29).

11F
Regulations

(1)
Any power of the Treasury to make regulations under sections 11B and

11C is exercisable by statutory instrument.

(2)
A statutory instrument containing regulations made by the Treasury

under section 11B (power of Treasury to extend the website to

expenditure by other bodies) must not be made unless a draft of the

instrument has been laid before, and approved by a resolution of, each

House of Parliament.

(3)
A statutory instrument containing regulations made under section 11C is

subject to annulment in pursuance of a resolution of either House of

Parliament.”’.

Progress reported.