Petition Independent Panel Review of Bans under Official Secrets Act

This petition calls for an amendment of Official Secrets legislation that requires any government official or minister, who wishes to ban or restrict information from the public based on national security or any other grounds under this legislation, to submit to a review by an independent panel of judges selected by the Supreme Court. The government will have to give full details of their claims that publication would harm national security or other grounds for prohibiting publication. The panel will have the right to endorse government proposals, or overturn them with publication of the full details of the government application along with their judgment, and can call on parliament to impeach officials for egregious behaviour.