Order to release secret ID card reports quashed

An information tribunal ruling which ordered the release of independent reviews of the government’s identity card scheme has been quashed by the High Court.

Mr Justice Stanley Burnton said the tribunal had erred in the way it had come to its decision and ruled that the Freedom of Information (FOI) case must now be reassessed by a new tribunal.

Independent reviews of progress of the controversial ID card scheme—Gateway Reviews —are periodically produced by the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) and an activist and a MP used the FOI Act 2000 to request publication of two of these.

The High Court said the tribunal’s decision could not stand because it had been partly based on a report on the confidentiality of the Gateway Reviews produced by a Parliamentary Select Committee. This, said Stanley Burnton J, risked breaching the ancient right of Parliamentary privilege.

Tom Morrison, an associate at Rollitts, says the Information Commission and the tribunal will have to take greater care to ensure the reasoning behind their decisions and the methods by which they arrive at their decisions are sound. “Failure to do so could lead to a greater number of decisions being challenged,” he adds.