ICO rejects appeal revealing how many ministers have criminal convictions

The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has ruled that the public has no right to know whether ministers have prior criminal convictions, rejecting an appeal by The Times (£) to force the Cabinet Office to disclose the total number of ministers who had declared one. The transparency regulator determined that ministers' right to privacy trumped the public’s right to know.

The ruling follows the resignation of former transport secretary Louise Haigh last year after she failed to publicly declare a 2014 fraud conviction. The ICO accepted the Cabinet Office's claim that disclosing the number could lead to a "jigsaw" effect, potentially allowing repeated requests to expose an individual minister's conviction through a process of elimination, particularly upon their resignation.

Under the current system, ministers declare convictions to the independent adviser on ministerial standards, who decides what information is made public. The ICO's decision, which The Times intends to appeal, contrasts with a recent finding by a judge in a separate case who stated that public scrutiny can only boost confidence in the integrity of the process.

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