Procedure Committee
20 May 2026
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Procedure Committee House of Commons
00:01 - 00:41
Speaker 3
Order. Order. And welcome to this public evidence session of the procedure committee. We're continuing to take evidence, for our inquiry into written parliamentary questions, and today's session is all about the interactions between WPQs and requests for information under the Freedom of Information Act known as FOI requests, and how these two separate systems compete. We're delighted to have three panels this afternoon, and to be beginning with three expert, witnesses on the FOI requests part of this, doctor Ben Worthy, Jenna Corduroy, Alex Parsons.
Before we begin, could I please ask you to introduce yourselves for the record?
00:42 - 01:20
Speaker 1
My name is Jenna Caldroy, and I'm a reporter for Democracy For Sale, which is an online media outlet where we publish investigations via newsletters. We mainly, produce investigations on matters concerning lobbying, donations, and transparency in political life. We specialize in obtaining documents under the Freedom of Information Act, and we often challenge government departments when we get refusals. We also monitor threats towards the Freedom of Information Act, and but we we I mean, FOI is an incredibly important tool, to hold the, powerful to account. So I'd like to thank the committee in taking time to consider FOI and how it relates to, written parliamentary questions.
01:22 - 01:43
Speaker 8
Hi. I'm Alex Parsons. I'm a senior researcher at My Society. We're a UK based civic tech charity that runs services like They Work For You, where we republish written questions and What They Know, where we, publish f y requests that be made in public. So our interest in this area is improving government transparency and the quality of information that's generally available in the public debate.
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