ARIA: Scoping Our Planet Programme

Lord McFall of Alcluith Excerpts

Tuesday 8th July 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Vallance of Balham (Lab)]

I will not get into whether it was or was not that, but I say again that we have no plans to bring ARIA under the Freedom of Information Act, which I think is important. If we go back to the origins of ARPA—the organisation in the US that led to DARPA, IARPA and many other such organisations on which ARIA is based—its originators in the 1950s and 1960s said that the reason no other country had managed to emulate that successful programme was because they kept everything on too short a leash. We should not make that mistake.

[The Lord Speaker (Lord McFall of Alcluith)]

Second Oral Question.

[Noble Lords]

Oh!

[The Lord Speaker (Lord McFall of Alcluith)]

I am sorry; I have been told the clocks are not working. There has been a little bit of a mix-up but we will get there.

[Lord Grocott (Lab)]

I have a question for the Minister; I am pretty sure that the answer will be that he has no idea, and that will not be any reflection on him because I do not have any idea either. What has been the total cost to the public purse of the implementation of freedom of information legislation for all the numerous organisations, large and small, across the public sector?