THE health watchdog for Oxfordshire has today backed the Oxford Mail’s Freedom of Information campaign.

Healthwatch Oxfordshire agreed it is essential the public understand how their money is being spent by the county’s health authorities.

This newspaper is fighting potential restrictions to the FOI Act which allow us to find out how taxes are spent.

Healthwatch scrutinises how Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust runs the John Radcliffe hospital in Oxford and Horton General in Banbury, and how Oxford Health runs its mental health facilities and community hospitals.

Head of projects Carol Moore said: “We haven’t needed to use the FOI Act but we think transparency is really important.

“Part of our role is to bring the public voice to people making decisions and part of the public voice is being well-enough informed to contribute to discussion.

“In order to be an active participant you need to be able to understand how these organisations are being run.

“These matters are really important to the public.”

The Oxford Mail launched its campaign against the possible changes to the Act with a special edition on Thursday last week.

David Cameron’s government has set up a commission, including noted critics of the Act such as former home secretary Jack Straw, to review its powers.

The Oxford Mail, like many other local papers, journalists and campaign groups up and down the county, is calling on the committee not to strangle the Act, which lets taxpayers ask almost any question of a public-funded organisation such as a council, health authority, police force or even a company contracted to do public works.

Today, the journalists’ trade website HoldtheFrontPage has backed our campaign as well: staff there have e-mailed the committee with 204 examples of how local papers have used the Act to reveal information, including two Oxford Mail stories.

One is from 2008 when we revealed that Thames Valley Police was only revealing a fraction of crimes across the county to the public.

The other found 27 out of 85 shops checked over the period of a year sold age-restricted items to under-17s as part of trading standards stings.

The Hands Off our FOI petition can be signed at change.org/p/matthew-hancock-mp-don-t-weaken-the-freedom-of-information-act.