Originally posted on Campaign4Change:
An upper tribunal judge this week refused consent for the Department of Work and Pensions to appeal a ruling that four reports on the Universal Credit programme be published.
It’s the third successive legal ruling to have gone against the DWP as its lawyers try to stop the reports being released.
The DWP is likely to request further consideration of its appeal. History suggests it will devote the necessary legal time and funding to stop the reports being published.
In March 2014, the first-tier information tribunal rejected the DWP’s claim that disclosure of the four reports would inhibit the candour and boldness of civil servants who contributed to them – the so-called chilling effect.
The
DWP sought the first-tier tribunal’s leave to appeal the ruling,
describing it as “perverse”. External lawyers for the DWP said the
tribunal had wholly misunderstood what is meant by a “chilling effect”,
how it is manifested…
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