Government attack information commissioner

The government has attacked the Information Commissioner over his stance on attempting to get them to be more open about the processes surrounding ID cards. Basically the Commissioner decided that the government should publish the 'Gateway' reviews/evaluations of their plans. Smart decision.

The government, however, are complaining that if the general public were to see these reviews it might cause "substantial harm." So basically their smart internal people told them the ID scheme was a lousy idea and because they have been selling it to Jo Public as a wonderful panacea for a variety of ills, they don't want the reality of the advice they received to be made public. This is exactly the kind of thing that kills public confidence in government, politicians and the political process. They have been overselling the utility of their big ID card idea, in spite of clear internal and external advice and evidence that the scheme won't work. Now they don't want their internal frank advice published because it would cause "substantial harm" and might "damage public confidence" in the scheme.

Thanks to HJ Affleck at FIPR for the link.