Brown cabinet ordered to release Iraq war minutes

The British Cabinet Office has been ordered to release details of ministerial discussions about the legality of the invasion of Iraq, under a landmark ruling by the Information Tribunal. Minutes of the debate would be made public after an unprecedented decision in which the tribunal rejected several appeals by the head of the public service. British ministers have 20 days to decide whether they will agree to publication of the minutes, or to impose a block ministerial veto to stymie the demand. This power has never been used and there is no countering tool to oppose it. The Government has 28 days to appeal to the High Court. In the Westminster system cabinet has long had the right to keep its discussions private and its debates are generally exempt from freedom of information laws. Ministers have strongly opposed the request, believing they should be able to discuss controversial matters in private. The tribunal's ruling refers to two meetings held in March 2003, in which ministers discussed controversial advice from the then attorney-general, Lord Goldsmith, that international law allowed the invasion of Iraq. The minutes would reveal if any minister opposed the decision or argued that the war might not be legal. The tribunal argued that the decision was exceptional and should be released under freedom of information legislation. "We have decided that the public interest in maintaining the confidentiality of the formal minutes of two cabinet meetings at which ministers decided to commit forces to military action in Iraq did not … outweigh the public interest in disclosure," the tribunal ruled. The decision follows nearly two years of battles after the Cabinet Office rejected an FoI request in 2007. Eventually the Information Commissioner, Richard Thomas, ordered the minutes released last January. But the Cabinet Office appealed. Lord Goldsmith's opinion on the legality of war in Iraq was handed to the then prime minister, Tony Blair, in early March 2003. This included all legal reservations and potential risks. But Lord Goldsmith revised this opinion and, later that month, the cabinet received advice that did not contain all the concerns. Minutes of this meeting, when cabinet decreed military action justified, would be released under the tribunal's ruling. The tribunal said: "The decision to commit the nation's armed forces to the invasion of another country is momentous in its own right and … its seriousness is increased by the criticisms that have been made of the general decision-making processes in the cabinet at the time. "There has also been criticism of the attorney-general's legal advice and of the particular way in which the March 17 opinion was made available to the cabinet only at the last moment and the March 7 opinion was not disclosed to it at all. "The approach adopted during the cabinet meetings by those who were aware of the March 7 opinion, as well as those who were not, is of crucial significance to an understanding of a hugely important step in the nation's recent history and the accountability of those who caused it to be taken." Clare Short, who resigned from cabinet over Britain's involvement in the Iraq war, told The Times : "I think people will be disappointed about how little the minutes will say."