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Royal secrets withheld under revised information rules

By Jane Merrick

The Duke of York's role as trade ambassador has been questioned

ap

The Duke of York's role as trade ambassador has been questioned

Members of the public and journalists will be banned from seeing the contents of secret documents on the Cabinet and Royal Family under measures quietly announced by Gordon Brown last week.

The Prime Minister's reforms on improving parliament contained a little-noticed plan to block Freedom of Information requests on Cabinet papers, even if there is a public interest case.

The blanket exemption, which will be seen as a retrograde step in access to information and transparency, also applies to documents relating to members of the Royal Family.

The publication of Cabinet papers and Royal Family documents are currently subject to a 30-year-rule. Anyone can use an FOI request, in the public interest, to ask for the documents to be published within those 30 years. Requests can be blocked by a ministerial veto – as was the case in the demand for Cabinet minutes of discussions in the run-up to the Iraq war. But FOI requests for Royal papers have been successful.

The change ends the public interest FOI option, however, and a blanket exemption is in place to "protect constitutional conventions".

A commission set up by Mr Brown and headed by Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre recommended reducing the current 30-year-rule to 15. Mr Brown has decided on a 20-year-rule, which was announced last week. All documents will be released under the 20-year-rule.

Graham Smith, of the anti-monarchy campaign Republic, said: "We have been successfully using freedom of information to raise questions about Royal use of public funds and resources and to question [Prince] Andrew's role as trade ambassador. It appears they would prefer to remain in secrecy, and that begs the question why?"

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WHAT HAVE THEY GOT TO HIDE?
[info]georgesign wrote:
Sunday, 14 June 2009 at 06:53 am (UTC)
Just another bunch on the make who want your subservience and adoration whilst laughing up there sleeves. The Royal Family has always had a clever system to keep would be trouble makers in line whether they are Media Barons or Prime Ministers. They offer them the prospect of an "honour".
So this is what he meant ...
[info]deimosp wrote:
Sunday, 14 June 2009 at 08:12 am (UTC)
So this is what he meant last week when he was talking about reforming parliament, transparency, accountability, etc. He actually meant that he was going to increase secrecy, stop release of information. Clever, how he says one thing then goes and does the opposite. And I wonder why people don't trust him.
OK
[info]chrisp666 wrote:
Sunday, 14 June 2009 at 10:13 am (UTC)
So let's stop funding them, then. Bunch of parasites.
A step back for democaracy
[info]purewater09 wrote:
Sunday, 14 June 2009 at 10:45 am (UTC)
Why haven't the media made a bigger fuss over this? In the wake of the expenses scandal, you would think he would be getting it in the neck for this. I thought we are supposed to be heading for greater transparency - not less. The parliamentary expenses are peanuts compared to the royal expenses, surely?

We need a democratically elected head of state. The monarchy is the cause of the class system. Our pessimistic outlook on life is a symptom of the fact we feel, as the general public , power is taken from us and given to the establishment. Get rid of titles and unelected 'Lords' - they have not earned their elite status - they have usually paid someone off, or performed some sort of favour for those in power.

A few shows of pageantry a year is not a good enough trade-off for the damage done by the class system.

No wonder we treat our politicians the way we do. They are actually not a bad bunch. But because we feel as 'commoners' we aren't entitled to a say, we feel our only option is to lash out at those we are 'allowed' to lash out at. The people we should really be angry at is those who really have the power - the royals, the Conservatives and the elite establishment that continue to have such a large grip on the running of this country.
Re: A step back for democaracy
[info]deimosp wrote:
Sunday, 14 June 2009 at 03:29 pm (UTC)
Whilst I don't disagree, at the moment the Ead of State just costs us momey (partially offset by the tourism benefits/income). In practice I think the House of Lords needs sorting out with a lot more urgently. Labour talk about an elected house but then only the other week Brown was appointing another of his mates as a Lord (Sugar). It is not like Sugar is the best businessman around (given his dcline since his Amstrad days and his final descent to become a game show host). True his is probably the only one who will help a doomed government in its final death throws, but he has still been appointed to the Lords because he is a mate of Browns and maybe as part of the deal for him to be this "business xsar" (he can easily be a "business xsar" without being appointed to the Lords). So the Lords part of the deal is because he is a mate of Browns and has nothing to do with him contributing a moderating influence to the Commons.

Sort of the Lords first as they have a much more significant impact of our lives.
Another Bunch of Scroungers
[info]neil639 wrote:
Sunday, 14 June 2009 at 11:06 am (UTC)
The Windsor dynasty is yet another part of our corrupt politicial system about which which the Establishment does not want us to know the truth. I suspect that by trying to hide the vast amounts of money spent on this mediocre bunch who waste enormous amounts of public money. We have one uneleced Head of State, but have to keep a whole dynasty of them. It really doesn't make much sense. Bring back Oliver Cromwell.
Royal wills - Executors have no obligation to inform a benificiary ? - What are they covering up?
[info]robertabrown wrote:
Sunday, 14 June 2009 at 11:17 am (UTC)
An FOI request for a secret practice direction on royal wills has taken 18 months so far, and I still have no date for an answer. Is my request one of the reasons why there is a move to restrict FOI in respect of Royal matters.

It came to light in the court case seeking to open the two royal wills that a secret practice direction had been created. (See 28 below)

I applied for this document under Freedom of Information in January 2008 and the application remains ongoing. Initially the Court Service denied there was any such practice direction. I pointed out that the Court of Appeal had confirmed the existence of the document in the judgement (see below), that the judgement confirmed that the document had been created outside any judicial process.

Following 15 months of denial of the existence of the document by the Court Service, notwithstanding responses on my part with evidence that there was such a document, I made a further fresh application direct to the Master of Rolls on 5 March 2009.The response I received denied the existence of the document not withstanding the Court of Appeal confirmed it did;

(quote) I also understand that you then made a freedom of information request and Mr. **** dealt with the same. Following an investigation into the matter he established that there is, in effect, no such practice direction and you were informed accordingly (quote)

I had consistently pointed out that the document I requested was the one referred to in the Court of Appeal hearing, and that I was not concerned for the purposes of the application what the document was called.

To date I have been given no indication of when I might expect a response, and my requests for an indication of a date appear from my perspective to be simply ignored.

I set out below three abstracts from the Court of Appeal judgement, one of which indicates that it is not certain that a hearing in respect of the wills even took place, a second that for me raises the question if there are beneficiaries who have not been advised of their bequests, and a third that sets out some information on the secret practice direction.






Abstract Court of Appeal Hearing: [2008] EWCA Civ 56 Before :

THE LORD CHIEF JUSTICE OF ENGLAND AND WALES
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE LORD JUSTICE THORPE
and
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE LORD JUSTICE DYSON
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Between :
Robert Andrew Brown
Appellant
- and -
(1) The Executors of the Estate of HM Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother
(2) The Executors of the Estate of HRH The Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon
(3) HM Attorney General

8. No public hearing took place of the two applications. It is not clear whether any hearing took place at all. Nor is it clear whether or not the former President provided reasons for making the orders. If she did they have not been made public.
28. Before and after the death of Princess Margaret there were discussions between the Palace, Farrers, the Attorney Generals Secretariat, and the Attorney General and the court which reviewed what Mr Hinks described as the practice of sealing royal wills. The Senior District Judge was involved who sought the views of the former President. Ultimately a quite lengthy document was agreed that was reviewed and approved by the former President. The process that this contained involved a system of checks and balances that was highly confidential. The primary object of the process was to protect the privacy of the Sovereign. Thus when the two applications came before the former President she had an understanding of the background that she would not otherwise have had.
40 The first three issues are interrelated and are of general public importance. Mr Hinks submitted to us that the reason why wills were open to public inspection was to ensure that effect was given to the wishes of the testator. No material was placed before us in support of such a submission other than a decision, over a century old, that supports the proposition, on the face of it a surprising proposition, that an executor owes no duty to inform a legatee of the terms of his legacy Lewis v Lewis [1904] Ch 656.
Re: Royal wills - Executors have no obligation to inform a benificiary ? - What are they covering u
[info]ancientoneuk wrote:
Sunday, 14 June 2009 at 11:58 am (UTC)
Its something that has gone on a long time, Buckingham Palace refuse to accept the existance of my great grandmother who was one of the chief cooks there during WWII and despite photographic evidence proving to the contrary, BP say she never worked there which is an abject lie...
royal secrets
[info]nopohrn wrote:
Sunday, 14 June 2009 at 02:00 pm (UTC)
I agree with chrisp666,if you have a patient in the emergency ward you try to stop the bleeding first.Give us some of OUR blood back.This is London not Transelvenia
Brown blocks Freedom of Information Act
[info]reiksares wrote:
Sunday, 14 June 2009 at 03:30 pm (UTC)
It's like living in a Stalinist oligarchy.
Re: Brown blocks Freedom of Information Act
[info]ash1168 wrote:
Sunday, 14 June 2009 at 04:13 pm (UTC)
You get the political system you deserve, yet we quietly acquiesce to the monarch/royals wielding immense constitutional power in our (unwritten) constitution. Whether or not you agree with the invasion of Iraq, Uncle Sam at least have a better argument for "spreading democracy" compared to the UK, whose system extols an unelected dynastic head of state, with the power to declare war independent of parliament - or she can hand that decision to the PM if she finds it too much of a PR risk, but then the PM, by the same token, similarly declares war independent of parliament. No wonder many Iraqi find us such hypocrites. Why can't we keep our Hussein dynasty as well?

And the Idea of Andrew jaunting around the world telling investors how to run a business by investing in the UK is another sad joke; the fact that he's never had to worry about value for money in his life aside, we are not even allowed to get access to information on how he's performing (or under-performing, more like).
Non Compliance
[info]cruise4 wrote:
Tuesday, 16 June 2009 at 09:31 pm (UTC)
Is the answer.
Non Compliance
[info]cruise4 wrote:
Tuesday, 16 June 2009 at 09:32 pm (UTC)
IS the answer... NOW!

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