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Information watchdog forces Iraq Cabinet minutes release

26/02/2008

Information commissioner Richard Thomas has ordered the government to release Cabinet minutes in which military action against Iraq was discussed.

The minutes, from two meetings on March 7th and 17th 2003, deal with attorney general Lord Goldsmith's changing advice on the legality of the Iraq invasion, which took place in May of that year.

Mr Thomas said a precedent for releasing Cabinet minutes would not be set but insisted he believed the convention of Cabinet confidentiality should be broken in this instance.

"In the information commissioner's view the public interest in disclosing the Cabinet minutes in this particular case outweighs the public interest in withholding the information," a statement said.

The government had refused to release the minutes on the grounds that ministers must be able to discuss sensitive policy issues without inhibition, but has accepted today's order from Mr Thomas.

A Cabinet Office spokesperson said: "The requirements of openness and transparency must be balanced against the proper and effective functioning of government. At the very heart of that system is the constitutional convention of collective Cabinet responsibility."