Chris Cook Letters by Prince Charles to ministers will remain unpublished

October 16, 2012 2:18 pm by Chris Cook

By Chris Cook

Correspondence between Prince Charles and government ministers must remain secret, the government has decided.

Dominic Grieve, the attorney-general, is using a ministerial veto that has been deployed only four times, to block publication of the documents.

The letters had been requested by the Guardian newspaper under the Freedom of Information Act. This veto overturns a ruling by the upper tribunal, a higher court, that ruled in favour of disclosure. Ministers have used the veto in three other cases, to block disclosures relating to the Iraq war, Scottish devolution and NHS reform. The Prince has caused controversy in the past with his advocacy of causes from homeopathy, a reversion to “traditional” teaching methods to his dislike for modern Read more

Posted in UK politics |
From FT data February 13, 2012

A fortnight ago, MPs caught a fleeting glimpse of a process that has, to this point, taken place discretely: the Information Commissioner’s Office investigation into the office of Michael Gove over suspected breaches of the Freedom of Information Act.

A transcript is now available for Mr Gove’s appearance before the education select committee, when he answered questions on the topic. He said the DfE had not released data from one document in response to FoI requests because it was political.

The law is straightforward: only government data is covered by the FoI Act. Party political or private business is never captured, even if it is sent via a government email address. Official business, however it is transmitted, is always covered.

In circumstances where there is a mix of party, personal and government business, official data is released and the remainder is redacted. So the whole text would need to be party political and not official for the document not to be covered by the act.

We have published it below.

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Posted in UK politics |