FOIA request internal review for Home Office ID Cards Programme Gateway Reviews
We have now been sent the OGC internal review of our Freedom of Information Act request for the Gateway Reviews of the Home Office ID Card Programme
As feared, this has not elicited any more information about the Identity Cards Programme.
Has this FOIA request been deliberately delayed by the politicians and spin doctors, for the full statutory 20 working days, followed by a further 15 working days for "public interest balancing", followed by another month of "internal review", simply to avoid producing any answers which might have informed the debates during the various stages of the controversial Identity Cards Bill ?
How can it be that the high level details of actual project objectivesa and risks, for the Identity Cards Programme, a multi-billion pound project, with massive implications for the whole relationship between the State and the Citizen will not emerge until the project disaster that many people fear, has already wasted our money, and compromised both our civil liberties and national security ?
Why doesn't the Government publish these so called Gateway Reviews, without personally identifying any of the civil servants and consultants, only their conclusions and recommendations ?
Having exhausted the internal appeal process, only now is it possible to submit this FOIA request to the Information Commissioner for a ruling.
Presumably the "Department for Constitutional Affairs Clearing House for Freedom of Information Act enquiries" mentioned in this reply, is the "secret spin unit" which this article in The Independent refers to ?