GOVERNMENT MUST BE OPEN AND ACCOUNTABLE - GOODHART

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Mon 14th Jul 2003

Liberal Democrat Peer Lord (William) Goodhart QC will today press Ministers on why the Government decided that information about potential conflicts of interest on the part of Ministers could not be disclosed to the Parliamentary Ombudsman Ann Abraham.

Lord Goodhart will say: "There is a requirement for full disclosure in the Register of Interests and in debates in both Houses. So why is it in the public interest that Ministers should not be required to make public the fact that they have consulted their Permanent Secretary about a possible conflict of interest, and what the outcome was?"

"The Parliamentary Ombudsman must be able to do her work fully and Parliament and government must be open and accountable. This refusal hardly helped matters."

ENDS

Notes to Editors.

Lord Goodhart will ask the Government:

*The Lord Goodhart—To ask Her Majesty's Government why they believe that the disclosure of information relating to occasions on which Ministers have reported to their private secretaries potential conflicts of interest under the Ministerial Code of Conduct would be contrary to the public interest.