Minutes and preparatory work conducting for a meeting at ONS' Newport Office on 17 February 2020

You asked

​​On 17 February 2020 special advisor to the PM, Mr Ben Warner, visited the ONS in Newport. Please provide me with the minutes of any and all meetings held with Mr Warner during that visit, and a copy of any preparatory work that ONS undertook for that meeting.

We said

Thank you for your request.

Please find attached the agenda and slides which constituted the preparatory work undertaken for Ben Warner's visit to our Newport office. The visit to Newport was arranged off the back of a meeting Ian Diamond and Ben Warner had in January 2020, where they discussed better use of analysis and accessing data across government.

To note the item with Tom Smith on the agenda did not go ahead. This was planned for a second visit in London, but given the pandemic this had not been arranged yet. The meeting focused on the Strategy and Engagement team providing a presentation covering examples of the recent policy focused work the team had delivered for No.10, Cabinet Office and Whitehall Departments over the last couple of years and the upcoming work that was planned.

There was no minute or note taken of the meeting.

Please note, one of the slides in the preparatory presentation provided has been removed, as this information was commissioned by central government and pertains to the active ongoing formulation of government policy. Therefore, this information is considered exempt under Section 35 (1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA), whereby information is exempt if it relates to the formulation or development of government policy.

In line with FOIA, we have considered whether the disclosure of this information would be in the public interest. Whilst we recognise the desirability for information pertaining to government decisions to be transparent in order to further public understanding of government decisions, we also value the public interest in the Government's ability to openly explore genuine ideas with external organisations when considering policy options. Disclosure of such information could weaken the Government's ability to ascertain such honest and genuine opinions. Furthermore, compromising the Government's ability to seek consultation at any appropriate time for the formation of policy by ad-hoc disclosure of information under the FOIA would be detrimental to the policy formulation process. Therefore, we conclude that the public interest test weighs in favour of withholding this information.

Another slide has been removed under Section 36(2)(c), as we believe the disclosure of this information would, or would be likely to, prejudice the effective conduct of public affairs.

The use of the exemption is subject to a public interest test, where we must determine if withholding the information is in the public interest.

Whilst we recognise the desirability for information pertaining to government decisions to be transparent in order to further public understanding of government decisions, we also value the need to maintain a relationship of trust with other government departments. We offer a safe space in which government officials can exchange free and frank views, without fear that the information in question could be released at a later date. Disclosing this information would produce a chilling effect, where government departments are unwilling to engage with our organisation to obtain advice and share research relevant to the formulation of policy. This would not only impede our role as an advisor but would impact their ability to produce well-informed policies for the public good. Therefore, public interest in withholding the information outweighs the disclosure in this case.