HM Treasury v Information Commissioner [2009] EWHC 1811 (Admin), [2009] All ER (D) 218 (Jul)
The case concerned a request for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA 2000). Essentially what was being sought was the opinion of counsel—a ‘Law Officer’, as defined under s 35(5) of FOIA 2000 —for the appellant, HM Treasury, who, it was alleged, had given support to the Prime Minister’s declaration that the Financial Services and Markets Bill was compatible with the Human Rights Act 1998.
The Court of Appeal noted, per curiam, that the Law Officers’ Convention now operated subject to the principles of the Act, which meant that neither the government department that might have sought or received the advice or the Law Officers that gave it would any longer make final or binding decisions on what, whether and when information might be disclosed.
It could be contemplated, for example, that the context for the commencement of hostilities in Iraq was of such public importance that irrespective of the decision of government to make partial disclosure, the strength of public interest in disclosure of the advice as
