On 27 December 2006, Dr Christopher Lamb made a request to the British cabinet office for copies of cabinet minutes and records relating to meetings at which the attorney general’s legal advice concerning military action in Iraq was discussed. Under the British Freedom of Information Act 2000, any person who makes a request to a public authority for information is entitled to be informed in writing whether the information requested is held and if so, to have that information provided. This general right of access is not unlimited and exemptions from the duty to provide information requested fall into two classes: absolute and qualified exemptions. Where the information is subject to a qualified exemption, the duty to disclose does not apply if, in all the circumstances of the case, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information (detailed case in “Information Commissioner’s Report to Parliament; ICO, 09/04/09).
The cabinet office accepted that such meetings took place but refused to disclose copies of the minutes, referring to the section of the Act that states that: “Information held by a government department is exempt information if it relates to