Social Audit Ltd

P O Box 111 London NW1 8XG

Telephone/Fax 44 (0)171 586 7771

Dear Mr Cayzer,

Many thanks for your letter of 15^th; it was good of you to write.

I am now clear about the meaning of Exemption Six; indeed my comments were (tentatively) based on the interpretation you spelled out. I shall therefore be interested to see what difference the Act may make when it comes to disclosing information which would be covered only by this exemption - ie information of a kind it would be proper to disclose, but for the fact it was supplied in confidence.

Given the emphasis in the White Paper on access to information "of any date …", (p. 7), and the assurance that "there would be only very limited exceptions to this" (Ibid), I would hope that, in such cases, the appropriate test would be one which protected the (individual or corporate) discloser from 'substantial harm'. That would seem quite fair.

I appreciate that you are in no position to comment on or argue particular points, and there is no need to acknowledge this note. I welcome this opportunity to comment and hope it will help to get these proposals 'right first time'

Yours sincerely,

Charles Medawar

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