Government adviser argues for risk register of NHS changes to be kept private

Publishing the documents in which officials warn about what could go wrong with the government’s changes to the NHS in England would lead to a “wildly speculative” assessment of risks and seriously damage the quality of advice given to ministers, the permanent secretary of the Department of Health told the Information Rights Tribunal on 6 March.

Una O’Brien was giving evidence in the department’s appeal against the information commissioner’s decision that it must disclose the strategic and transitional risk registers outlining potential dangers of the reforms outlined in the Health and Social Care Bill.

The commissioner, Christopher Graham, ruled last November that the government should have complied with requests made under the Freedom of Information Act …