FOI should apply to contractors

In the full council meeting last Wednesday, the Sheffield Liberal Democrats proposed that from now on, when new contracts are put out to tender from Sheffield City Council, service providers must agree to sign up to Freedom of Information rules that apply to the council as a condition of winning a contract.

Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 all public authorities have to publish certain information and members of the public are entitled to request information.

Freedom of Information allows public bodies to be held up for scrutiny and allows taxpayers to know how their money is being spent.

We believe that taxpayers should be able to know where their money is being spent, whether by the council themselves or by their service providers.

This is something that we as a city council have the power to do and change and make a real difference, and we were disappointed to see that the Labour councillors voted this down.

Not only do our Labour council not want their actions to be held up to scrutiny, as we saw with the recent cuts to bus services, they want to protect the interests of private companies over Sheffield residents.”

Coun Shaffaq Mohammed

Liberal Democrats