Former Premier Alex Scott is urging the public to give their views on a proposed freedom of information law — before it's too late.

Government revealed on Tuesday that a November 30 deadline has now been set for citizens wanting to comment on the draft Public Access to Information (PATI) Act 2009.

The Government backbencher, who promised such a transparency law in 2003 when Premier, said it was "most important" that people have their say before the "historic" legislation gets tabled in the House of Assembly.

"It's not the sort of thing that folks get excited about but it is fundamental to good governance, so I hope that public will just take a moment out, read as much of the bill as they can and anything that concerns them, or even things that they find they welcome, let the Cabinet Office know," he told The Royal Gazette.

"They should include the things that they support in their submissions. That allows the Government to know that they are on the right track.

"But also it's important that they speak to the things that they would like to see changed or included or taken out of the bill. This will serve Bermuda and Bermudians way, way into the foreseeable future. We are now doing a very historic piece of legislation."

Mr. Scott, who tabled a PATI discussion paper in Parliament in 2005, said his main criticism of the draft bill unveiled by Premier Ewart Brown on October 15 was that it was not retroactive.

Government is proposing that the law only apply to public records created after the date it goes on the statute books, in contrast to international best practice.

The suggestion has been criticised by global human rights organisation Article 19, Opposition politicians, local lawyer Timothy Marshall, FOI expert Carole Excell and members of the public at meetings held this week.

Mr. Scott, a supporter of The Royal Gazette's A Right To Know: Giving People Power campaign, said: "My understanding, and I stand to be corrected, is that it's a discussion paper. It's not necessarily representative of what will be the end piece of legislation and in that regard I'm relieved and pleased.

"I certainly would not like to think that we are going to go to all the trouble of creating a PATI bill and not have it retroactive. It must be. It's imperative that it cover the entire government archive with, of course, the exception of security and personal information."

He added: "It would make a nonsense of the whole exercise if we just went from this moment forward. The whole notion is to open the people's records for them to access."

He said it was vital that people realise that the information which FOI would give them access to was already theirs — they just lacked the fundamental human right to see it.

"We shouldn't refer to them as government files," he explained.

"It really is the public record. We in government are the keepers of the public record. In that regard, we immediately relieve ourselves of the notion of 'us and them'."

• Visit www.gov.bm to view the draft bill. Email submissions to pati@gov.bm.