The government has been ordered to disclose confidential
reports into the viability of its £5.8bn
ID card programme.
In a precedent-setting case, the Information Tribunal has
dismissed an appeal by the
Office of Government Commerce (OGC),
ordering it to publish its Gateway reviews of the programme.
The tribunal ruled, in a 40-page decision published today, that
the public interest in disclosing the reports - which assess the
business case for ID cards - outweighed the public interest in
keeping them secret.
The case will put pressure on the government to routinely make
Gateway reviews into government IT projects available to the
public.
“Disclosure is likely to enhance public debate of issues such as
the programme’s feasibility and how it is managed,” the information
commissioner Richard Thomas said today in response to the
decision.
The Office of Government Commerce argued during a four-day
hearing that disclosure would fundamentally undermine the
Gateway review process.
It claimed that civil servants would be inhibited from offering
frank and candid views on the progress of IT projects if their
views might become public.
Peter Gershon, the former civil servant responsible for
introducing Gateway reviews of government IT projects, told the
tribunal that any publication of adverse comments in reports would
provoke a backlash from the government department under
scrutiny.
"They will say 'we will go public and make it clear we don't agree
with the report,'" he said.
"The whole department will muster its defences and resources, so
it becomes public that we don't agree with it."
Gateway reviews offered a safe space for government officials to
speak candidly and unguardedly, said Gershon. The government could
either be open or have an effective scrutiny process – but not
both, he said.
The tribunal found, however, that the “safe space” the OGC
argued was necessary to protect the early stages of policy
formulation could not be justified at a time when the Identity
Cards Bill was being openly debated in parliament.
The tribunal criticised the OGC for developing a Gateway review
system that operates on the apparent assumption that there was
little or no risk that the results would be made public.
This was at the very least unprofessional, said the tribunal,
and was at variance with the aim of the Gateway reviews to
encourage and support more professionalism in the way projects were
undertaken.
The “grave consequences” the OGC predicted would flow from
disclosure were overstated, it concluded.
Watchdog attacked in battle over ID cards
>>
Legal fight over ID cards secrecy begins
>>
Government conceals ID cards reviews
>>
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