4th and 5th March 2008 - court date for OGC appeal against Information Tribunal decision ordering the publication of the early Gateway Reviews of the Identity Cards Programme
The Office of Government Commerce have emailed to say that the High Court date for their appeal against the decision of the Information Tribunal, published in May 2007, regarding their ordering of the full publication of the Home Office Identity Cards Programme early Gateway Review reports, has provisionally been set for Tuesday 4th and Wednesday 5th March 2008 at the Royal Courts of Justice (times and Court still to be decided nearer the date). - see our OGC Gateway Reviews of the Identity Cards Programme category archive for the history of this long running legal delays and prevarication, against the spirit of the Freedom of Information Act.
Even assuming that the High Court makes a Judgement (hopefully rejecting the appeal of the OGC)) on the Wednesday (possible but unlikely) , this will be at least 3 years 2 months 3 days i.e.1158 days since the original FOIA request to the Office of Government Commerce and the Home Office, when the Freedom of Information Act 2000 came fully into force on 1st January 2005.
Why is the UK Court system so deliberately slow and expensive ?
Delaying the publication of these Gateway Reviews, beyond the passage of the Identity Cards Act 2006 and beyond possibly two General Elections, is intolerable political and bureaucratic manipulation.