The Sakhalin secrets
is drawing attention to a recent and very significant from the Information Tribunal.
It concerns an information request made by to the Export Credits Guarantee Department in 2005. They wanted copies of communciations between the ECGD and other government departments relating to a huge oil and gas near the Russian island of Sakhalin, which amongst other things could affect the feeding areas for an endangered category of whales.
The Tribunal ruled that the material should be released, arguing that the candour of such documents written in 2003 would not have been harmed by disclosure in 2005. It is another example of a case where the Tribunal has overruled the Commissioner, who supported ECGD's refual to provide the information.
The ECGD has still not taken a final decision on whether to approve the project. According to the CFOI, this is the first time the Tribunal has decided that policy advice should be disclosed when a government decision is still pending rather than historical.
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It does seem strange, if it is true that information about something which our government has not yet decided upon is to be released. It might affect the decision making process of the stakeholders concerned if they feel their work is being scrutinised so closely even before the job is finalised.
This FOI stuff can be very confusing eg on the latest draft information sharing framework it actually states “some of the content of the framework code goes beyond the strict legal requirements
of the law." We should be concerned that any apparently illegal contexts benefit all stakeholders most equitably.
Luckily we can comment about this via the consultation which is still on, I believe.