02 April 2015
Applications such as that for access to Prince Charles’ “black spider memos” would be “doomed to failure” if they were to be made in future, according to Mark Elliott, Reader in Public Law, Cambridge University, since “s 37 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 was amended in 2010 so as to render communications with the heir to the throne absolutely exempt from disclosure”. The Supreme Court ruled 5-2 last week in Evans v Attorney General [2015] UKSC 21 that Prince Charles’ letters to government departments can be disclosed under the Act.
