Northern Ireland the collective worship required must not be distinctive of any particular denomination. Reforms to be introduced in Northern Ireland later in the year will empower the Northern Ireland Education Department to specify a core syllabus for religious education.
Article 19
Open government
252. Since the second periodic report, there has been an increase in the amount of information for which access is provided in law, and an increase in the amount of official information made available. The Data Protection Act 1984, which was mentioned in paragraphs 238-240 above, gives individuals right of access to information held about them on computers; the Local Government (Access to Information) Act 1985 gives right of access to local authority meetings and to certain documents and records, and regulations under the Access to Personal Files Act 1987, which came into force on 1 April 1989, give individuals a right of access to manual records with information about themselves held by local authorities for the purposes of housing and social services.
253. Over the last 10 years, much more government information has been made available; there is more briefing of news media, an increase in published research papers and evaluation of the effect of policies, and more openness in the processes of government. There has also been a substantial increase in
public consultation.
254. The Government is opposed to a general statutory right of access to information on the internal workings of government and considers that such a right would be inappropriate, because ministerial accountability to Parliament would be undermined by appeals on release of information to the courts or some form of information commissioner, and unnecessary, because a wide range of information is already available, particularly through the mechanism provided by Parliamentary Select Committees. Much of the business of government is necessarily confidential and, as the Prime Minister said in Parliament in October 1985, there is no reason to believe that a Freedom of Information Act would give a better result in terms of accountability of the Government to Parliament and the electorate.
255. There is another category of information which is not normally released: information whose release would not be in the interests of national security.
Official secrets
256. The Official Secrets Act 1989 abolishes the much criticized blanket protection for official information provided by section 2 of the Official Secrets Act 1911. It also abolishes the offence under that Act of receiving official information unlawfully disclosed.
257. The purpose of the 1989 Act is to limit the protection of official information to those areas for which criminal sanctions are absolutely necessary, that is, security and intelligence, defence, international relations, foreign confidences, crime and special investigation powers.
In