For a while I’ve wondered if it might be helpful to summarise key Supreme Court and other major judgments in a few sentences. So I thought I’d have a go at it as an experiment, while I’m gathering my fuller […]

The Supreme Court has today given judgment in this case, about the extent to which the Freedom of Information Act 2000 applies to information the BBC holds for journalistic purposes.

I’m afraid the case has something of the Dickensian […]

Charon interviewed me today: we spoke about the Supreme Court, its origins and what we expect from it, and whether the superficial change from House of Lords to Supreme Court will bring with it more significant changes, such as […]

A couple of years ago, it was all the rage to worry about the role of the Attorney General, and the government even consulted on the possibility of publishing the Law Officers’ advice. You can see the results of the […]

In the end, then, the minutes of Cabinet meetings at which the decision to invade Iraq was taken will not be released; Jack Straw has invoked section 53 of the Freedom of Information Act, thus vetoing disclosure in spite […]

Speaker Martin is making matters worse by applying the sub judice rule to his own appeal against the Information Tribunal’s ruling. The one place, therefore, that there can be no discussion of this incredible appeal is in […]

I’m astonished by the news that the Speaker has decided, apparently based on new legal advice, to appeal against the decision of the Information Tribunal that certain details of the expenses of fourteen named MPs must be disclosed. An […]

This is the week the Freedom of Information Act 2000 finally bit: politicians and the public now know it’s not simply a joke but can force previously confidential information to be released. There have been two important rulings: the

I’ve not seen a lot of coverage of this, but the FCO has lost in its attempt to withhold disclosure of a draft of the “dodgy dossier” published before the invasion of Iraq. There’ll be a few glum faces in […]