On 10 May the Department of Health issued a statement saying that Health Secretary Andrew Lansley "...has today made a statement to Parliament explaining his decision to veto the disclosure of the Transition Risk Register. This follows the announcement on Tuesday 8 May that Cabinet had agreed to his use of the veto in this case."

The statement went on to say: "The Secretary of State for Health sought the Cabinet's views on the exercise of the Ministerial Veto in relation to the Information Tribunal's ruling that the Transition Risk Register should be released. He did so as part of a full commitment to act in accordance with the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act, which makes specific provision for the exercise of such a veto."

In fact there was a partial publication of the document, a Review of 2010 risk register. The 'review' is an edited version of the full risk assessment carried out by civil servants. It runs to 23 pages and covers nine 'Risk Areas'.

Announcing the decision not to publish, on 8 May Health Secretary Andrew Lansley said: "This is not a step I have taken lightly. I am a firm believer in greater transparency and this Government and this Department have done far more than our predecessors in publishing information about the performance and results of our policies. But there also needs to be safe space where officials are able to give ministers full and frank advice in developing policies and programmes. The Freedom of Information Act always contemplated such a 'safe space' and I believe effective government requires it. That is why Cabinet has today decided to veto the release of the Department's transition risk register.

"Had we not taken this decision, it is highly likely that future sensitive risk registers would turn into anodyne documents, and be worded quite differently with civil servants worrying about how they sound to the public rather than giving Minister frank policy advice."

John Healey, the Labour MP who made the request under the Freedom of Information Act, said the government had taken a "desperate act which will backfire badly".

"There must be some very big risks in the government's NHS reorganisation for ministers to override the law with their political veto. Ministers have made the announcement in the very last hour of the last day, trying to bury this bad news on the eve of the Queen's Speech," he said.