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Freedom of Information Act 2000

My Lords, is it not a great pity, not that the Government have come to this decision—which I believe to be correct—but that they have taken so long to avail themselves of this procedure of issuing a certificate under Section 53 of the Act? After all, if one looks at the grounds on page 1 of the statement of reasons, it says, "““disclosure of this information would be … contrary to the public interest, and … damaging to the doctrine of collective responsibility””." With each of those reasons I of course agree. However, turning the page, I see under the heading ““Analysis”” the words: "““First, I am satisfied that at the time of the request in December 2006, the balance of the public interest in this case fell in favour of non-disclosure””." Will the Minister come back to the question with which my noble friend Lord Kingsland opened his speech? Why has it taken so long? In answer to another question, the Minister has this afternoon implied that due process required that the matter should be appealed by the Cabinet Office to the information tribunal. Unless I am completely mistaken, due process in Section 53 lays down that there should be a statement to the commissioner within 20 working days of a decision notice, setting out the opinion of the Secretary of State that there are reasonable grounds for issuing a certificate. Can the Minister think about those points and assist us further?