BORIS Johnson’s Cabinet Office is “a rogue department” which is “antipathetic” to public scrutiny a senior SNP frontbencher has said as he submits evidence to a Commons inquiry into how the Cabinet Office handles Freedom of Information requests.
Tommy Sheppard, the SNP MP and the party’s spokesman on the constitution, has been involved in a two year-long battle with the key Westminster department to obtain secret polls it has done on the Union.
Formerly run by Michael Gove, it has repeatedly rejected Sheppard’s Freedom of Information request and appeals to make the documents public. After his appeals were turned down, Sheppard took his campaign to the First-tier Tribunal (General Regulatory Chamber) Information Rights which in June this year ruled the Cabinet Office must “disclose the information within 28 days”.
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However, since that ruling the documents have yet to be released with the Cabinet Office appearing to use the tribunal appeals system to prevent the material being made public.
Sheppard has submitted a dossier on his long-running battle to the Commons’s Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee (PACAC) which announced an inquiry in July.
The probe, which is shortly to start taking oral evidence, focuses on how the Cabinet Office body handles requests, the measures used to do so, and whether this complies with the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act.
The move followed a court judgement in April demanding the UK Government release files on the department’s Freedom of Information “Clearing House” citing a “profound lack of transparency about the operation”. OpenDemocracy, who brought the case, accused the body of obstructing access to information they are entitled to seek under the FOI rules.
Sheppard (above) last night told The National: “I believe there is a systematic policy of frustrating Freedom of Information procedures by the Cabinet Office. This must be sanctioned by ministers and be a matter of policy.
“It’s behaving like a rogue department within government and it needs to be called to account. I am hopeful this PACAC inquiry it will report on the matter and bring the Cabinet Office to heal.
“I have put Freedom of Information requests into other government departments and got an adequate response within the timescale.”
Asked why he thought the Cabinet Office were consistently blocking requests, he said: “I think they are a law onto themselves and are run by people who are antipathetic to public scrutiny.”
During its court case, OpenDemocracy accused the Cabinet Office Freedom of Information’s Clearing Hous of obstructing access to information they were entitled to seek under the FOI rules. During questioning by the Committee previously, Gove (below) defended the Clearing House stating that it is there to ensure consistency across Government in complying with the Freedom of Information Act.
Under the Act, anyone can request information from a public authority, but it also includes clauses that allow those authorities to refuse to release information where the cost of complying is above a pre-set threshold. The Act was introduced to improve transparency.
Launching the probe, PACAC chair William Wragg said in July: “The perceived opacity of how the FOI Clearing House operates has the potential to damage trust in governance and transparency legislation.
“As a matter of trust, we felt it is something that must be addressed at the earliest opportunity.
“The Committee will examine how the Freedom of Information Act is implemented at the heart of Government and whether these measures fit with the spirit of Act.”
The Committee will be addressing the following issues:
• The Cabinet Office’s compliance with and implementation of the Freedom of Information Act 2020;
• The role and operation of the Cabinet Office Freedom of Information Clearing House including;
• Its role in advising on and co-ordination of the handling of FOI cases across Government.
Sheppard’s intervention comes just a day after a freedom of informion request by The National to the Cabinet Office to seek details about Boris Johnson’s Union Unit was turned down.
A Cabinet Office spokesman said last night: “We’re confident PACAC’s findings will show the government is upholding transparency and the effective operation of the FOI Act.
“The government is committed to its transparency agenda, routinely disclosing information beyond its obligations under the FOI Act, and releasing more proactive publications than ever before.
“With increasing transparency, we receive more complex Freedom of Information requests and we must balance the public need to make information available with our duty to protect sensitive information and national security.”
The Cabinet Office support the Prime Minister and are responsible for ensuring the effective running of government. Until the PM’s reshuffle earlier this month Gove was the minister in charge of the Cabinet Office.
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