The Information Commissioner may have been publicising Friday 28th September as international Your Right To Know Day (.pdf), but another Anniverseray has now been reached:
It is now over 1000 days since our original Freedom of Information Act request was submitted, initially to both the Office of Government Commerce and to the Home Office, for the to pre-Stage Zero and the actual Stage Zero Gateway review reports, on the Home Office's Identity Cards Programme.
Despite years of delays, and an appeal to the Information Commissioner, who made a Decision in favour of full publication, back in July 2006, folllowed by an appeal by the OGC to the Information Tribunal, who also found in favour of full disclosure in May 2007. The OGC is currently wasting more public money by appealing to the High Court.
These Gateway Review reports have still not been disclosed.
The High Court resumes its non-emergency activities after the summer break on Monday.
We will be nagging them to disclose when the alleged OGC appeal, supposedly on a point of law, rather than just the balance of the interpretation of the law, against the Information Tribunal's ruling is to be heard.
See OGC Gateway Reviews of the Identity Cards Programme category archive for the history of this deliberate and disgraceful bureaucratic and political suppression of our rights under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
It is very likely that when, not if, the High Court finds in our favour, and orders the Labour government to disclose the by now, very out of date documents, we will want to know exacly how much this has cost the taxpayer in terms of legal fees and civil servants' time.
UPDATE: 5th October 2007
The OGC have emailed to say that the High Court date for their appeal against the decision of the Information Tribunal 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).
Even assuming that the High Court makes a Judgement (hopefully rejecting the appeal of the OGC)) on the Wednesday, 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.
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