Government hires legal experts to fight publication of ID card reviews

I can't think of any good reason for HMgov to be doing this except that they are aware that contantly reminding the public how much money is being squandered on this white elephant may accelerate the loss of support for the beast.

The government is to hire internal and external legal experts, including a Queen’s counsel, to try to block the publication of Gateway reviews of its ID cards programme -... The Office of Government Commerce (OGC), which is part of HM Treasury, will use the Treasury Solicitor’s Department, external legal experts and a QC to fight a decision by the information commissioner, Richard Thomas, ... The Gateway scheme was instigated and is run by the OGC, which has refused all requests under the Freedom of Information Act for the results of the reviews to be published....
If the government gets its way, and Gateway reviews remain secret, parliament will continue to have no dependable means of receiving the information it needs to scrutinise adequately questions of value for money on major IT contracts.

ID in the News� Blog Archive � Government hires legal experts to fight publication of ID card reviews: Filed in: ID, ID_cards, UK, costs