Andrew Watson
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Joined: 09 Jan 2005
Posts: 6283
Location: Cambridge
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 Posted: Mon, 23 Feb 2009 18:11:35 +0000 Post subject: Tony Collins' blog: OGC loses FOI ID Cards battle - does ... |
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http://www.computerweekly.com/blogs/tony_collins/2009/02/the-bbc-reports-that-ministers.html
OGC loses FOI ID Cards battle - does it care?
The BBC reports that "ministers have been ordered to publish two reviews into the controversial ID Cards scheme after a four-year Freedom of Information Battle".
This is true. But the BBC doesn't mention that the two "gateway reviews" in question, on the ID Cards scheme, may never be published.
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The Information Tribunal has now ordered - for a second time - that the reviews be published in a ruling published on 1 9 February 2009. Its 60-page judgment accepts that the case may go further.
Indeed it's likely the Office of Government Commerce will appeal once more to the High Court. So more public money - £140,000 so far - will be used to keep secret reviews that not even IT suppliers and IT teams working on the project within government have a right to read. If the High Court orders that the reviews are published, the OGC could appeal to the Law Lords.
By then the initial gateway reviews on ID Cards could be seven or seven years old. If the Law Lords order the OGC to publish, the government can wheel out a ministerial veto. That government could be a Tory one - for the Tories have made no commitment to publish gateway reviews.
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