Public consultations on the draft Freedom of Information Bill have begun and are expected to be completed by the end of October, Minister of Education, Science and Technology Jerome Fitzgerald said in a recent interview. He did not say when the bill is expected to be tabled in the House of Assembly. The consultations will include town hall meetings, among other things, Fitzgerald said. He said the committee overseeing the drafting of the bill was hoping to begin consultations at the beginning of summer, but that didn't work out.

"Based on what the suggestions are to the draft that we have in place, then we will take it from there," he said. "But I really want to be in a position where I can take an agreed draft FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) to Parliament. Based on that then we can move to begin to train the public service to deal with the changes that would be pretty dramatic for the public service."

Fitzgerald said the government remains committed to implementing a Freedom of Information Act.

"The truth is it has to happen," he said. "I don't think the government, to my knowledge, is opposed to it. We've gone through the proper channels. We've consulted and that is ongoing still. At the end of the day will everybody get what they want? No. The government is not necessarily going to get everything it wants, and the public won't necessarily get what it wants. But we will get a Freedom of Information Bill that will stand up to FOIAs around the world."

The government hopes to implement FOIA on or before July 2016, Fitzgerald has said. The Marathon MP previously said that the FOIA needs close to 100 amendments or would need to be totally replaced with a new bill. The Ingraham administration tabled the Freedom of Information Bill in Parliament in October 2011. A revamped version was passed in the Senate in February 2012. However, the act was never enacted.

While addressing an anti-corruption forum in the Cayman Islands in March 2014, Prime Minister Perry Christie announced that his administration will give "renewed consideration" to "the draft Freedom of Information Act" to allow citizens greater access to government information and to provide them with the tools to keep public administration transparent and accountable.

Not long after coming to office, Christie also pledged that he would bring the Freedom of Information Act into force.

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