UK Justice Secretary vetoes release of Iraq minutes - Freedom of Information in the UK becomes a laughing stock

UK Justice Secretary vetoes release of Iraq minutes - Freedom of Information in the UK becomes a laughing stock

Justice Secretary Jack Straw has vetoed the publication of minutes of key Cabinet meetings held in the run-up to the Iraq war in 2003.

He said he would use a clause in the Freedom of Information Act to block the release of details of meetings in which the war's legality was discussed.

Releasing the papers would do "serious damage" to Cabinet government, he said, and outweighed public interest needs.

The Information Tribunal ruled last month that they should be published.

Straw vetoes Iraq minutes release (BBC News, 24 February 2009)

Where now for FoI? (BBC News Open Secrets, 24 February 2009)

Jack Straw's Commons statement: The full text of Jack Straw's Commons statement announcing his decision to block the release of cabinet minutes relating to the invasion of Iraq (The Guardian, 24 February 2009)

"For such a decision to have been reached under the Freedom of Information Act means it must have been approved by the cabinet yesterday (not that we will be allowed to see the minutes for 30 years), and every member of the present government, from Gordon Brown downwards, should hang their head in shame.It also means ministers knew they had no chance in law to reverse the admirable decision of Richard Thomas, the information commissioner, to press for the minutes' publication." writes David Hencke in the following article:

Jack Straw's decision to veto publication of Iraq minutes is a disgrace: Every member of the present government, from Gordon Brown downwards, should hang their head in shame (The Guardian, Politics blog, 24 February 2009)