OGC goes to the High Court over ID cards

Thursday, May 31, 2007

The OGC is appealing against the decision, forcing them to publish the ID cards gateway review

The Office of Government Commerce (OGC) has now launched an appeal with the High Court after their appeal to the Information Tribunal failed.

The Information Tribunal decided in April that the OGC should publish its gateway review of the ID cards programme.

The Information Commissioner's Office has been calling for the review to be published after a freedom of information request by Liberal Democrat MP Mark Oaten and security consultant Mark Dziecielewski was refused by the OGC in 2004 and then referred to the Information Commissioner's Office.

The tribunal said in its ruling that the Freedom of Information (FoI) Act had been in place before the gateway reviews began and should have been taken into account by the OGC in conducting them. It claimed it was "unprofessional" to develop the system on the assumption that there was little or no risk of disclosure.

It added that Gateway Reviews as a whole should not be exempted from FoI, but that individually they could qualify for exemptions.

An OGC spokesman said: "OGC welcomes the Information Tribunal's findings that OGC had correctly identified that the information requested fell within qualified exemptions from the duty to disclose automatically under the Freedom of Information Act.

"However, it does not agree with the tribunal's findings on where the public interest lies in relation to what information should be disclosed and what it is appropriate to withhold.

"So far the gateway process has helped achieve over £2.5bn in value for money savings. In the government's view, disclosure would seriously undermine the effectiveness of the gateway process, as confidentiality is essential to the whole process.

"The gateway process is a crucial management tool to improve the success of the government's projects and programmes. In the government's view it is not in the public interest to put that effectiveness at risk through disclosure of the information contained in the two reports concerned in this case."

A spokesperson for the ICO said information commissioner Richard Thomas had been aware of the importance the gateway reviews and the balance between ensuring it remains effective and public accountability and transparency.

"However in these cases he was not persuaded that the gateway review process would be damaged by the disclosure of this information. The commissioner concluded that disclosure is likely to enhance public debate of issues such as the programme's feasibility and how it is managed

"We understand that the OGC is now appealing to the High Court. The ICO will defend its original decision in the High Court," the spokesperson said.