Hillsborough Papers To Be Published

The Government has been ordered to publish documents revealing the discussions held by Margaret Thatcher about the 1989 Hillsborough disaster. Information Commissioner Christopher Graham ruled that the information was in the public interest.

In a decision notice, he said: "Support for disclosure of information relating to the Hillsborough disaster was expressed by the previous government and has been reconfirmed by the current Government, and the commissioner also believes that the specific content of the information in question would add to public knowledge and understanding about the reaction of various parties to that event, including the government of the day, in the early aftermath."

Ninety-six Liverpool fans died in the crush at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield on April 15, 1989, where the club was playing an FA Cup semi-final against Nottingham Forest. An inquiry found that the main reason for overcrowding was the failure of police control.

The commissioner's judgment may still be subject to an appeal, which would need to be lodged with the First-tier Tribunal (Information Rights) within 28 days. If there is no appeal, the Cabinet Office has 35 days to comply with the order.

Graham's judgment relates to a Freedom of Information request from the BBC more than two years ago, which was refused by the Cabinet Office.

This was followed by an internal review which upheld the refusal, prompting the complainant to ask the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) to review the request in September last year.

In his judgment, the commissioner hit out at the Cabinet Office for "unjustified and excessive" delays.

He ordered the Government to publish information relating to the Hillsborough disaster provided to Mrs. Thatcher, then prime minister, and the minutes of meetings she attended on the matter.

The Commissioner said it was right to publish the record of a Cabinet meeting on April 20 1989 in which Mrs. Thatcher and her ministers spoke of the disaster.

The Cabinet Office had argued that disclosure would impact negatively on the freedom with which ministers can engage in "free and frank discussions", and on the convention of collective responsibility.

But Mr. Graham said: "In this case there had been multiple changes in government between the time that the information was recorded and the date of the request.

"Also, the subject matter of the discussions recorded within the information in question centered on a very particular set of circumstances that were no longer current at the time of the request.

"As a result the view of the Commissioner is that the argument in favour of maintenance of the exemption relating to convention of collective Cabinet responsibility is not a factor of significant weight in favour of maintenance of the exemption."

He also said the passage of time since the information was recorded was a key factor.

"This information was 20 years old at the time of the request and, as the complainant has noted, the current Government is implementing a reduction of the current 30-year period before Government papers are released to 20 years," he said.

He therefore recognized "that there is a diminishing case for withholding information over 20 years old".

In December 2009, the Labour government set up an independent panel to review the documents surrounding the tragedy to assess what should be made public. The Cabinet Office said no material should be disclosed before the panel finishes its work, planned for the end of this year.

But the Commissioner said he did "not agree that the existence of this panel is a relevant factor here, as it did not exist at the time of the request".