Labour are flouting FOI rules to keep Israel files secret. Here's how
The standard legal response time passed back in May. The extended one expired in June. Now, the Foreign Office is saying we have to sit tight until September 16 – when it looks likely we will just be told to wait another month.
READ MORE: Scottish university ranked among worst in the UK for Palestine repression
Here's the thing: if the UK Government aren't technically breaking any rules, they are bending them beyond all recognition.
We have requested an internal review – but that is likely to be a case of 'marking your own homework'.
Our next and final step would be escalating to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO). We have not yet done so, but it's worth taking a look at what that watchdog's guidance for public bodies has to say. It's lengthy, but worth quoting at length. This is, after all, the point on which the whole matter hinges:
In most cases you will not need additional time to assess where the balance of the public interest lies … You can only extend the 20-working-day limit up to a 'reasonable' time. While FOIA does not define what a 'reasonable' extension of time might be, the section 45 Code of Practice confirms that this should generally be for no more than an additional 20 working days to consider the public interest.
This means the total time spent dealing with the request should not exceed 40 working days. Any extension beyond this should be exceptional. Examples of such circumstances could include exceptional levels of complexity involving a number of external parties. You will need to demonstrate that the length of any time extension is justified for further consideration of the public interest.
You should be prepared to explain to the Information Commissioner why you were unable to decide on the public interest within the original 20 working days. This is particularly the case in any extensions beyond an additional 20 working days, which will be reasonable only in exceptional cases, and you must be able to justify fully any such extensions.
So, Labour have tacitly admitted that this case is 'exceptional'. While the official guidance says the consideration time should not exceed 40 days, it has already been 120. By their September deadline, it will have been 147.
Even if you remember the "working day" caveat, they are so far beyond the deadline as to make a mockery of its existence.
But there is another interesting detail here. The ICO says cases could go beyond the 40-day limit if there are 'a number of external parties' involved.
In this example, who could the external parties be? Labour wouldn't be consulting Israel on whether it can release information to the UK public, would they?
This is unclear. But we have another tool on hand to find out. Well, the same tool as before really: freedom of information laws.
David Lammy meeting Israeli foreign minister Gideon Sa'ar in Israel (Image: Gideon Sa'ar/Twitter) In what could be termed a meta-FOI, The National has now submitted a request for the release of 'copies of all records held by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office that concern or make reference to' our first FOI request.
If Labour are willing to openly flout the conventions governing freedom of information, we deserve to find out why.
Ultimately, this is what Labour are taking months to decide: is your right to information outweighed by their desire to keep Israel sweet? They admitted as much when they put in writing that public interest was being considered against 'international relations'.
Where do you think the public interest lies? In keeping UK Government documents on a secret meeting with a top Israeli minister locked up – or in letting voters see what Labour are truly up to behind closed Whitehall doors?
Don't worry, you don't have to answer that immediately. Take five months if you need to. The UK Government has.
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