Department for Education ordered to release board meeting details

The Department for Education has been ordered to disclose previously secret details about the deliberations of its board meetings, Education Uncovered can reveal.

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has directed the DfE to release the detail in agenda papers setting out the outline contents of meetings taking place over an 18-month period, after a protracted Freedom of Information battle triggered by a request from the journalist Ann McGauran.

However, the decision will not lead to the full disclosure of the notoriously opaque meeting minutes. This is because the ICO accepted an argument by the DfE that the substantive contents of the discussions – in other words, anything other than the broad contents of meetings as set out in agenda papers - should still be kept secret. In doing so, the ICO seemed to accept an argument that releasing this level of detail could “affect public confidence”, by implication in policymaking.

In its decision notice, the ICO said: “The Commissioner requires the public authority to take the following steps to ensure compliance with the legislation: disclose the information in the agendas that has been incorrectly withheld,” under an incorrectly-applied section of the freedom of information law which would have allowed information to be kept confidential.

The ICO ordered the DfE to make this disclosure within 35 calendar days of the date of the decision notice earlier this month, which means the release of agenda information should come before Christmas. If the DfE fails to comply, said the notice, the ICO may write to the High Court and it may be dealt with as contempt of court.