The UK’s new FBI-style police force will be exempt from having to abide by Freedom of Information laws. The Yorkshire Post has the scoop, revealing that the National Crime Agency will refuse to answer questions from the public on spending and non-operational activities. Big Brother Watch director Nick Pickles told the paper:

“For a Government supposedly committed to transparency, this is a calculated move that would shut the public out of holding the country’s most senior policing officials to account. At a time when the Home Office wants to give these officers access to details of who we email, call and send postcards to, it is remarkable to be proposing they should be able to do so behind a cloak of secrecy.”

First the snooper’s charter, now the removal of the ability to hold the police to account. How’s that whole openness and transparency thing going, Dave?