A planned crackdown on freedom of information rights could see charges of up to £4,000 levied simply to scrutinise structures such as Clinical Commissioning Groups — at the heart of stealth privatisation of the NHS.

Research facilitated by FOI requests has long been a vital transparency safeguard across the public sector, leading to recent NHS-related headlines including:

While public authorities are currently obligated to answer the vast majority of requests for free, fees of up to £20 per request are reportedly under consideration by a commission set up by the Tories — and featuring notable FOI critic Jack Straw.

The diffuse way the NHS is configured could mean such research becomes prohibitively expensive:

209 clinical commissioning groups = £4,180

= £4,180 155 acute trusts = £3,100

= £3,100 56 mental health trusts = £1,120

= £1,120 34 community providers = £680

Even an FOI to the ten ambulance trust would come to £200.

Other members of the commission include Michael Howard, whose embarrassing MP expense claims for gardening were exposed … as a direct consequence of an FOI request.