The Information Tribunal has ruled that the Department of Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) must disclose records of meetings held in 2005 between the Department of Trade and Industry (as it then was) and the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), subject to redaction of certain material. In upholding, for the most part, a decision of the Information Commissioner, the Tribunal accepted that ministers and civil servants needed a private thinking space for formulating policy, which would extend to external consultants. However, it had more difficulty in placing the CBI, a significant lobbyist and influencer, in the same position, and it was not possible to distinguish between the CBI's influencing and advisory roles. The Tribunal considered that there was a strong public interest in understanding how lobbyists, particularly those given privileged access, were attempting to influence government policy; this counterbalanced the public interest in maintaining a private space at the early stages of policy formulation. The Tribunal doubted the assertion made by BERR and the CBI that the risk of disclosure would lead to a loss of frankness and candour in their discussions. Accordingly, the Tribunal held that although the exemptions contained in sections 36 and 36 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 were engaged, the public interest in favour of disclosure outweighed that in favour of the maintenance of the exemptions. Source: Department of Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform v Information Commissioner and Friends of the Earth, EA/2007/0072, 29 April 2008.