Legal secrets
If you want something to remain secret, get a lawyer to tell it to you.
That's the feeling you get from looking at some from the Information Commissioner.
While the Commissioner has occasionally instigated the disclosure of legal advice (as, partially, in the Iraq war case), he is clearly very reluctant to overrule public authorities when they don't want to reveal material on the grounds of legal professional privilege.
Of course there are often good reasons why legal advice should remain private, but it's not entirely clear to me why the secrecy needed for the frank views of lawyers doesn't dwindle as the events involved recede into the past in the same way as it does for the frank views of others, like say cabinet ministers or permanent secretaries. Maybe I need to ask a lawyer.
Not that all lawyers seem so keen on secrecy for their advice. One influential one proclaiming a different view is the justice minister Harriet Harman. Appearing on Sunday AM at the weekend, as part of her campaign for the Labour deputy leadership, her enthusiasm for making public legal advice from the Attorney General.
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Martin,
Might it perhaps all be because the FOI Act (as with all UK legislation) was drafted by (or at least in consultation with) lawyers? Maybe if it had been drafted by economists, economic advice would be exempt, by politicians, no need for David MacLean's "sleazebag's charter" private member's bill, statisticians .... you get the picture etc.......
I'm A Mole And I Live In A Hole
Err, a little consideration of those decisions will show you that the secrecy needed for people to consult their lawyers in confidence [i]does[/i] decline over time. Most of the decisions refer to whether the advice in question was "stale" or "spent", i.e., whether it was no longer likely to be used.
But as to the question of why legal professional privilege seems to be stronger than some of the other exemptions: the Information Commissioner is a former solicitor, the Chairman and Deputy Chairmen of the Information Tribunal are all solicitors or barristers, and any review of the Tribunal's decision will be heard in the High Court. These people tend to see the value of legal professional privilege.
We should not be too critical.
Legal privilege DOES in fact dwindle over time where FOI is concerned, because of the requirement to look at the public interest when considering the LP exemption.
Let us also remember that until FOIA, legal privilege applied in perpetuity (a principle of law which went back a very long time indeed). So in a sense, the change which FOIA has brought about is fairly massive.
And to reassure the two conspiracy theorists above, legal privilege only protects the client - it has nothing to do with protecting lawyers!