‘Commercial interests’ cited as Council keep Hospital closure evidence secret
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- Dacorum Council says the public have no right to see the evidence behind its decision to back the closure of Hemel Hospital
- The Council claims its ‘commercial interests’ – and those of unspecified others – take priority over the public’s right to know
- The Council turned down a Freedom of Information request from a DHAG member about the process for deciding to press for the Hospital to be closed and replaced by a Hub.
- A Council officer said making the evidence for the decision public could ‘prejudice future stages of the scheme, as well as the ability to obtain best value in terms of future funding and contracts’.
- This would ‘likely prejudice the commercial interests of any person/body including the local authority.’
- The evidence for the closure decision was ‘received by the Council in circumstances where there has been no obligation to provide information’. Publication would, the Council claimed, pose a ‘risk of discouraging others from engaging in such research in the future.’
- The Council also failed to provide details of the longlist of possible options which had been drawn up by the Council and the NHS
- Key extracts from the letter from the Council are below:
- Final-FOI-Dec-25-1 (3)