Met appeals over informant ruling

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/england/london/8446402.stm

Version 0 of 1.

The Metropolitan Police (Met) is to appeal against a ruling to force it to reveal how much is spent on informants.

Information Commissioner Christopher Graham ordered the London force to give details by next Tuesday, or it could face punishment for contempt of court.

He stepped in after officials refused to tell a Croydon resident the bill for informants in his south London borough.

The Met said the information could put people in danger and give criminals information about their tactics.

But Mr Graham rejected their arguments and said the public interest should be served by greater transparency in how taxpayers' money is spent.

'Exploit weaknesses'

The Met pays about £2m every year to informants, many of whom are involved in crime themselves.

Fighting the latest case, the Met said organised criminals could use the information to analyse police tactics and exploit weaknesses.

Officials said if there were particularly big payouts criminals could link them to high-profile crimes and assess how the police has been operating.

But in his decision notice, Mr Graham said there is little chance of an informant being identified because the request covered 12-month periods in a borough of 300,000 residents.

Slow response

Mr Graham said the use of informants is of "some controversy" and there is "little authoritative information" available to inform a public debate.

He said the Met remained so cautious the true figures would only be revealed to his office over the telephone and officials refused to write them down.

Mr Graham also criticised the force for dealing with the original request too slowly and botching some of its reasons to maintain secrecy.

A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: "The Met will be appealing against the Information Commissioner's decision."