Judgment comes after Cabinet Office refused a freedom of information request from the BBC more than two years ago
The government has been ordered to publish documents revealing the discussions held by Margaret Thatcher about the 1989 Hillsborough disaster, in which 96 Liverpool fans died in a crush at the stadium in Sheffield.
Ruling that release of the documents was in the public interest, the information commissioner said it was right to publish the record of a Cabinet meeting on 20 April 1989 in which the then prime minister and her ministers spoke of the disaster, which took place five days earlier.
The judgment by Christopher Graham relates to a freedom of information request by the BBC more than two years ago, which was refused by the Cabinet Office. He rejected the office's argument that the disclosure would impact negatively on the freedom with which ministers can engage in "free and frank discussions", and on the convention of collective responsibility.
"In this case there had been multiple changes in government between the time the information was recorded and the date of the request," Graham said. "Also, the subject matter of the discussions recorded within the information in question centred on a very particular set of circumstances that were no longer current at the time of the request.
"As a result the view of the Commissioner is that the argument in favour of maintenance of the exemption relating to convention of collective Cabinet responsibility is not a factor of significant weight in favour of maintenance of the exemption."
He also said the passage of time since the information was recorded was a key factor.
"This information was 20 years old at the time of the request and, as the complainant has noted, the current Government is implementing a reduction of the current 30-year period before Government papers are released to 20 years," he said.
He therefore recognised "that there is a diminishing case for withholding information over 20 years old".
The rejection of the BBC's initial Freedom of Information request was followed by an internal review which upheld the refusal, prompting an application for the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) to review the request in September last year.
In his judgment, the commissioner hit out at "unjustified and excessive" delays as he ordered the government to publish information relating to the disaster provided to Thatcher and the minutes of meetings she attended on the matter.
The ruling was welcomed by Pat Joynes, who lost her son Nicholas in the Sheffield tragedy. She told the BBC: "Twenty-two years ago, when Mrs Thatcher came to Liverpool Cathedral, my husband asked her face-to-face if there was going to be a cover-up, and she said: 'Mr Joynes, there will be no cover-up.' But there has been a cover-up which has persisted ever since." Joynes is a member of the Hillsborough Family Support Group.
The commissioner's judgment may still be subject to an appeal, which would need to be lodged with the First-tier Tribunal (Information Rights) within 28 days.
If there is no appeal, the Cabinet Office has 35 days to comply with the order.
The disaster, which took place at an FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest, was the focus of an inquiry that found that the main reason for overcrowding was the failure of police control.
In December 2009, the Labour government set up an independent panel to review the documents surrounding the tragedy to assess what should be made public. The Cabinet Office said no material should be disclosed before the panel finishes its work, planned for the end of this year. However, the Commissioner said he did "not agree that the existence of this panel is a relevant factor here, as it did not exist at the time of the request".
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/jul/26/margaret-thatcher-hillsborough-papers-released
William Mountbatten-Windsor Prince William Charles Mountbatten-Windsor Prince Charles Camilla Mountbatten-Windsor
No comments:
Post a Comment