The government has been ordered to publish a report it attempted to keep secret that details the risks of its NHS reforms.
It means the controversial NHS restructuring could face further serious questioning when the strategic risk register is eventually released.
The Department of Health (DoH) has attempted to avoid publishing the document for almost a year claiming it would have jeopardised the success of the policy.
According to an article in the London Evening Standard, two separate freedom of information requests were made to the Department of Health (DoH) for the risk register by the paper and John Healey MP, Labour's former shadow health secretary.
The Evening Standard article said the document is "expected to reveal the risks to patient safety, finances and the very workings of the NHS from the unprecedented reshaping of the health service".
And it added that "the landmark legal judgment forced the Health Secretary to hand over the document which his department had sought to keep under wraps for nearly a year".
Christopher Graham, the Information Commissioner, ruled that the DoH twice breached the freedom of information law in failing to disclose the strategic risk register.
The paper explained that DoH officials had previously argued that releasing the risk register would have "jeopardised the success of the policy" and maintained that disclosing the file could "deter from full, candid and proper deliberation of policy formulation and development".
However in his ruling, Graham contradicted this, noting: "Disclosure would significantly aid public understanding of risks related to the proposed reforms and it would also inform participation in the debate about the reforms".
After the ruling was made, Healey demanded the Prime Minister hand over the documents in full and attacked Andrew Lansley MP, the Health Secretary and architect of the controversial plans.
He said: "The year-long cover-up is a disgrace, especially when doctors, nurses, patients groups and the public are all so worried about the Tories' NHS plans.
"The commissioner's report is a demolition job of Lansley's attempts to keep the truth from the public."
