The minister has issued a notice which nullifies a ruling made last year by the Information Commissioner’s Office that the report should be released.
In his statement of reasons for the decision, McLoughlin said that the incorporated company HS2 Ltd is effectively an internal body of the Department for Transport, so lies inside the “safe space” required for the discussion of policy within government.
He added that the ICO had underestimated the extent to which that public interest would be damaged by premature disclosure of the report.
Information commissioner Christopher Graham called the decision “disappointing”, and said he would write to the justice committee after studying the ruling.