Hain -v- Gillan

There is, at some point, going to be a referendum on extending the powers of the Welsh Assembly so that they do not need to ask the Government in Westminster for permission to make laws in devolved areas.

The new Welsh Secretary Cheryl Gillan has said that her predecessor Peter Hain failed to complete the preparatory work to allow for the referendum to go ahead this year.

According to the BBC

Mrs Gillan says she is "shocked" by a lack of progress, but Peter Hain accused her of "spreading smears" and talking "pure rubbish on stilts".

So...I wanted to see who was telling the truth.  Enter the trusty WhatDoTheyKnow and a FoI request from me to the Wales Office in which I asked them to:

Please supply details of the work conducted and that remaining to be done in order for the referendum to go ahead.

But it seems that they are not keen on the idea...

I can confirm that the Department holds some information which falls within the scope of your request, but that this information may be exempt under section 35, which related to the formulation of Government policy.

Public authorities are required to respond to requests for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) no later than 20 working days following receipt of the request.

However, Section 10(3) of the FOIA allows public authorities to extend this time limit where the information held may be exempt under a qualified exemption, and they require more time to consider the balance of the public interest when deciding whether to disclose the information.

The Wales Office has not yet reached a decision on the balance of the public interest in this case. As I need additional time to fully consider where the balance of the public interest lies in relation to the information you have requested, I will not be able to respond to your request in full within 20 working days.

I hope to let you have a response by 9 July.

Given that either the current Welsh Secretary or the former Welsh Secretary is apparently lying I am pretty sure that it is in the public interest to reveal this information.

We should soon find out.