Still not in the public interest
OVER two months after being asked for information that would support the assertion that their was nothing in the Mayers judgment that changed CaRT's view of its guidance for boaters without a home mooring, the Trust is still unwilling to provide it or to admit that such information does not exist, writes Allan Richards.
Instead it claims that it does have the information but it is not in the public interest to provide it.
It was was over two months ago that Richard Parry had his last Facebook session, inviting questions from boaters. With national boating groups being asked to suggest what they would like to see in terms distance travelled for those without home moorings he was asked if he intended to ‘apologise to boating groups for not making the Mayers judgment available to them before starting discussions on which it has a bearing'.
He avoided directly answering the question (Not in the public interest) but maintained that there was nothing in the case that altered CaRT's view of its guidance to boaters without a home mooring.
Copy of the judgment
Asked under the Freedom of Information Act to provide a copy of its judgement, CaRT has refused to do so claiming an exemption under the Act. This is rather surprising as in 2013 British Waterways provided a copy of the Davis judgement despite being able to claim an exemption.
British Waterways went on to publish the Davis judgment on its website but this has been removed by the Trust.
Supporting the assertion
Asked for ‘a copy of any document held that would support the assertion that there was nothing in the judgement that changed CaRT's view of its guidance', the Trust has refused to provide it. CaRT has claimed it is exempt from providing the information under Section 42 of the Freedom of Information Act because the documents requested contain information relating to current court cases.
After an exchange of emails, the request was reworded such that it did not inadvertently include any information not relating to the Mayers case (which, of course is not 'current'). However, CaRT are still refusing to provide the information and still claiming an exemption under Section 42 of the Act.
Public interest test
Section 42 is not an absolute exemption. In other words CaRT can not simply say 'we are prevented by the Act from providing this information'. Instead, they have to apply the public interest test. In short CaRT must consider whether the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosure. Asked repeatedly to state what factors, for and against, the Trust has taken into account when applying the public interest test, it has failed to respond.
Of course, a major factor for disclosure would be assurance that it's chief executive is not misleading the public on the matter!