05.06.09
Look out here for more on MMR
Whitehall health officials have abandoned their appeal
against an order to fully disclose the minutes of committees that decided
on introducing MMR in the UK.
The department of health (DoH) in January lodged an appeal against
a ruling by the information commissioner that the minutes should be disclosed
without any redactions.
The DoH had disclosed redacted versions of the minutes in response
to three separate requests under the freedom of information act by the FOIA
Centre acting on behalf of a parent of one child allegedly seriously harmed
by the MMR triple vaccination.
The information commissioner, in a ruling backing the FOIA Centre,
rejected a series of redactions made to the minutes under five separate exemptions.
The department was appealing to the information tribunal against the
rejection of its use of one exemption, although not the other four. It was
appealing in an attempt to maintain the redaction of details identifying who
made specific comments at the meetings.
In a letter confirming the withdrawal of the appeal, the department
told us: “In line with the practices of confidentiality that applied
at the time, 1986-1992, the department has argued against publication of these
committee minutes in a way that would identify individuals’ comments.
“Since January, the department has contacted as many as possible
of the individuals attending these committee meetings and consulted them about
the potential release of unredacted minutes.
“Following that consultation, the department has now decided
to withdraw from the appeals.”
The department has duly disclosed an unredacted version of the requested
committee minutes.
Documents on MMR were obtained by the FOIA Centre acting on behalf
of one of the parents of a child in the group litigation against various pharmaceutical
companies. Look out for more revelations on MMR on our website.
FOIA
Centre commentary
The government’s decision to drop this appeal leaves the ground-breaking
ruling made by the information commissioner intact.
As we have noted before, this ruling struck a huge blow in favour of
accountability on policy decision-making that is parallel with the order to
disclose MPs’ expenses with regards to the spending of public money.
FOIA has arrived not only as a force to hold public bodies to account
over the spending of public money, but also over the way in which they make
policy decisions.
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