Latest news with #governmentinterference
Times
24-07-2025
- Politics
- Times
Watchdog rebukes government for blocking Times FoI request
The government has been issued with an unprecedented formal rebuke by the transparency watchdog for wrongly interfering to block a freedom of information request from The Times. Internal correspondence showed staff at the Attorney General's Office (AGO), the government's legal advisory office, had intervened to 'maximise the delay' in having to disclose how often the former minister Suella Braverman had forwarded official correspondence to private email addresses. After a lengthy legal battle, The Times was able to reveal last year that she had done so on 127 occasions, which a former head of the National Cyber Security Centre described as posing a 'clear vulnerability'. The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) said it was 'highly concerning behaviour for an organisation with the AGO's role and remit to take this approach', adding that it must take action to ensure requests from journalists are not mishandled in future. Braverman was later forced out as home secretary for using such private emails by Liz Truss, before being reappointed by Rishi Sunak. The intervention came as the government was being widely criticised for its approach to transparency. Last week it was revealed that the government had maintained a superinjunction to prevent disclosure of information about a leak of thousands of names of Afghans who were seeking to flee to the UK for two years, and the efforts to protect those affected, despite the clear public interest in scrutiny. • Juliet Samuel: Afghan cover-up shows secrecy is addictive The ICO said the correspondence about Braverman 'strongly implies that the AGO anticipated their refusal would be overturned and aimed to delay the publication of information that it believed it should release under The Freedom of Information Act'. It said that it 'should not require the commissioner and then the tribunal to instruct them to disclose information which they know they should disclose', which was a 'waste of their own, the commissioner's, the tribunal's and ultimately the taxpayer's limited resources'. The transparency watchdog further criticised the AGO for allowing senior officials to intervene to water down the response to ensure what was disclosed would not be 'easily quotable in a newspaper', with it being clear that 'the quality of the response the requester received was likely to be affected by their status as a journalist'. It said it was also of concern, given the role of the AGO in supporting the government's compliance with the law, that staff also revealed the response was written with reference to concerns that 'HO Spads [Home Office special advisers]/No 10 may wish to spin this'. The internal correspondence, the ICO said, raised concern about 'the underlying culture at the AGO in relation to transparency', concluding that it was 'clearly not in the spirit of the act that a request made at the end of 2022 for information that should have been released at the time does not result in disclosure of information until 2024.' The AGO was approached for comment.
CBC
24-06-2025
- Health
- CBC
Auditor general granted $1M for private surgical contracts probe
Alberta's auditor general has been granted his request for nearly $1 million in extra funding to dig deeper into allegations around overpriced private health care contracts and possible government interference. Auditor general Doug Wylie said the scope and complexity of the probe means his office needs to hire additional help and cover legal costs. Members from both the United Conservative Party government and Opposition NDP who sit on the legislature committee that approved the request said Wylie is doing important work. His investigation began earlier this year as a result of allegations made by the former head of Alberta Health Services, the provincial health authority. Athana Mentzelopoulos is suing the government for wrongful dismissal, claiming she faced political interference on the job and was fired for looking into overpriced contracts. The allegations have yet to be tested in court and the province has denied any wrongdoing, claiming instead that Mentzelopoulos was fired for poor job performance.
