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| Version 0 | Version 1 |
|---|---|
| Iraq minutes 'must be released' | Iraq minutes 'must be released' |
| (10 minutes later) | |
| Ministers have been ordered to release minutes of the cabinet meetings which discussed the 2003 invasion of Iraq. | Ministers have been ordered to release minutes of the cabinet meetings which discussed the 2003 invasion of Iraq. |
| The Information Tribunal upheld a decision by the Information Commissioner that details of the March 13 and 17 sessions should be disclosed. | The Information Tribunal upheld a decision by the Information Commissioner that details of the March 13 and 17 sessions should be disclosed. |
| The meetings considered the issue of whether the invasion was allowed under international law. | The meetings considered the issue of whether the invasion was allowed under international law. |
| The government failed in its bid to block a Freedom of Information request asking for the release of the minutes. | The government failed in its bid to block a Freedom of Information request asking for the release of the minutes. |
| The Cabinet Office now has 28 days to decide whether to appeal to the High Court against the ruling. | |
| A Downing Street spokesman said they were "considering our response". | |
| Cabinet minutes are not normally released until at least 30 years after the event - but the Tribunal stressed that disclosure of the Iraq material would not necessarily set a precedent. | |
| 'Public interest' | |
| 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 (particularly in the Butler Report) 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." | |
| Information Commissioner Richard Thomas said he was "pleased" the Tribunal had upheld the decision he made in February last year that "the public interest in disclosing the official Cabinet minutes in this particular case outweighs the public interest in withholding the information". | |
| He added: "Disclosing the minutes will allow the public to more fully understand this particular decision." | |
| Legal questions | |
| The release of the cabinet minutes would reopen controversy over the then attorney general Lord Goldsmith's legal advice on the war. | |
| On the eve of war, 17 March, Lord Goldsmith's opinion unequivocally saying military action was legal was presented to cabinet, MPs and the military and published. | |
| However, after long-running reports that he had changed his mind as the planned invasion approached, his initial lengthy advice given to Tony Blair on 7 March was leaked and then published in 2005. | |
| This advice raised a number of questions and concerns about the possible legality of military action against Iraq without a second UN resolution and was never shown to the cabinet. | |
| The then prime minister Tony Blair defended his decision not to show the cabinet the full advice, saying that Lord Goldsmith had attended the cabinet in person and was able to answer any legal questions and explain his view. |