A senior minister has predicted that the Freedom of Information Act will make government procurement much more open.

Interviewed in the FT, the constitutional affairs secretary says that preparations for the Act have been a "painful process" in Whitehall.

Government procurement is worth £125 billion a year - although business claims the process is often difficult to navigate.

Lord Falconer claimed that the new legislation, which throws open access to information, would make a "profound difference".

"We'll be much more open about procurement processes... business should be able to use the Act as a legitimate tool to find out about government policy, about the facts that underlie policies, about procurement issues," he said.

Requests

Falconer went on to claim that the "big bulk" of requests would come from business rather than individuals.

He added that business should not see the new legislation as a means of securing competitive advantage over their rivals for government contracts.

"You shouldn't be able to use freedom of information as a means of stealing a march on your competitors by getting confidential processes that might have been given to the government for a legitimate reason," he said.

The new legislation, which could create a significant number of legal challenges to the government, comes into effect on January 1.