Official Secrecy

Abstract

Britain has often been described as the most secretive of the Western democracies. The Official Secrets Act of 1911 (OSA 1911), with its infamous Section 2 was seen as an oppressive piece of legislation, since it made the unauthorised disclosure of official information, about anything, to anyone, for whatever reason, a criminal offence. Section 2 of the 1911 Act was finally replaced, after many failed attempts, by a new OSA in 1989. However, most commentators have argued that the reforms were disappointing and some have argued that the new Act is worse than the old. It is easy to understand the sense of disappointment, as the new OSA 1989 does not recognise any positive right of public access to information and it also does not recognise the defence that ‘leaks’ can be justified by reference to the public interest. Critics such as Palmer argue that the ‘Act leaves unchanged the ethos of secrecy in the United Kingdom’, and a special issue of the journal Parliamentary Affairs includes articles that are highly critical of the Thatcher government’s attitude towards official information.