A PLEA by Oxfordshire County Council to weaken the Freedom of Information Act could reduce scrutiny and accountability of big decisions, it has been claimed.

The local authority submitted a response to a consultation held by the independent commission on freedom of information suggesting a number of changes to the act.

The county council’s principal governance officer Glenn Watson said it should be easier for the authority to stop people using the FOI Act to find out about discussions relating to issues such as budget cuts or how services are delivered.

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He also argued in the council’s submission that organisations should be obliged to spend less time answering each individual FOI request made.

But county council Labour leader Liz Brighouse and pressure group the Campaign for Freedom of Information criticised the proposals.

Mrs Brighouse said: “It is important that when public money is being used people know what is being done with it and why those decisions are being taken.

“Of course, if you have a high volume of requests the cost of answering them is something that local authorities will get very exposed by.

“It is about striking a balance but the balance has to be in the public interest, it has to be about transparency and local democracy.”

Under the terms of the act, authorities can exempt information from being disclosed if they believe it being made public would stop “free and frank” discussion about decisions such as budget cuts.

But they have to prove that it would be in the public interest to withhold the information.

In the county council’s submission, Mr Watson said the requirement of a public interest test should be removed.

He said: “In times of austerity, public authorities are experiencing a significant amount of budgetary cuts.

“The council considers it inherently in the public interest that public deliberations are not challenged prematurely.”

Local authorities are currently able to reject requests which would take them more than 18 hours to respond to, but Mr Watson said this should also be cut.

He warned that if the limit was not lowered money could be diverted away from services such as child and adult social care.

The county council’s submission will be considered by the commission, whose membership includes former Home Secretary Jack Straw and retired civil servant Lord Burns, when it makes its recommendations on the future of the act later this year.

In November the Oxford Mail launched a campaign to stop the act being weakened.

Campaign for Freedom of Information director Maurice Frankel said: “I think the county council’s submission is excessive.

“They do not cite any examples where decisions which have gone against them have damaged the public interest."