Maurice Frankel is the Director of the Campaign for Freedom of Information.

In the first of two in-depth interviews for Real Media, he covers the lawful exemptions to FOIA requests and talks about the way in which ‘commercial confidentiality’ is often misused as an excuse for not giving the public access to information.

He’s calling for support for a Private Member’s Bill being introduced by Andy Slaughter next year which will curb this get-out and bring PFI and other public authority contracts under public scrutiny.