Spies all over the place today. This morning Guido revealed the chief suspect in the Prince Charles Cabinet Office mole story to be Nick Hurd’s former private secretary Laura Osbaldeston. Unsurprisingly still no comment from them. Guido isn’t holding his breath, but here are the further questions this blog has asked the Cabinet Office under the Freedom of Information Act today:

• What record do you have of any meetings between your former employee Laura Osbaldeston and any representatives from the Household of the Prince of Wales?
• Please provide all correspondence between Laura Osbaldeston and the Household of the Prince of Wales, including from her official government email account.
• Please search Laura Osbaldeston’s official government email account for the terms ‘Prince of Wales’ and ‘Charles’, and provide copies of all emails that meet this criteria.
• On what date and for what reason did Laura Osbaldeston cease to be on secondment at the Cabinet Office?

Guido has never understood why there is not more anger that the Royal Family is effectively exempt from the Freedom of Information Act. The Cabinet Office have the chance to prove us wrong…

Circumstantial evidence leads us to suspect that Prince Charles’ Cabinet Office mole is Nick Hurd’s former private secretary Laura Osbaldeston. Cambridge graduate Osbaldeston began a two year secondment to the Cabinet Office in 2011 after working for a “private household” for five years. She worked her way up from assistant private secretary to private secretary to Hurd, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Civil Society. Her Facebook page gives the game away, professing her support for the Prince’s Rainforest Project.

When Guido asked to speak to Laura, the Cabinet Office replied that “we have no one of that name working here”. They refused to confirm or deny that she had worked there previously, even after Guido read out her LinkedIn profile down the phone. They wouldn’t tell us the date she left either. They refused to deny that she was on secondment from the Household of the Prince of Wales. All the evidence points to Laura Osbaldesten being Charles’ Cabinet Office spy. Ironically a few months ago Francis Maude told Guido we would never find out the name of the heir to the throne’s Cabinet Office mole…

Yesterday’s Sunday Times splashed on Prince Charles’ mole in the Cabinet Office, exclusively revealed by Guido in January. The Cabinet Office has made every attempt to cover up the activities of Charles’ spy, initially refusing to even comment on the record and then rejecting Freedom of Information requests enquiring:

• When did this employee begin their secondment at the Cabinet Office?
• How many days a week do they work at the Cabinet Office?
• What is their job description / what are their responsibilities at the Cabinet Office?
• What level of security clearance do they have?

After this blog’s appeal to the Cabinet Office for an internal review of their refusal was rejected by mandarins on the spurious grounds of Data Protection, Guido wrote to the Information Commissioner for a final, independent decision:

This relates to how £30,000-a-year of taxpayers’ money is being spent, and to the intervention of the supposedly politically neutral heir to the throne in the affairs of government.  It is without doubt in the public interest. Not to mention that the “personal data” line is risible since our questions do not ask for anything personal to be released, indeed not even the spy’s name. What possible reason could the Cabinet Office have for such secrecy? Guido awaits the ICO’s judgment with interest…

You can read all Guido’s stories about the Cabinet Office spy here.

Readers will remember how last month Guido revealed that Prince Charles had a spy on secondment in the Cabinet Office. There was a distinct whiff of a cover-up, Guido’s sources had no idea the mystery man or woman existed and the Cabinet Office refused to disclose their identity. This blog then learned that the Household of the Prince of Wales employee was on a “specialist policy” mission in the department. Guido has now received the response to his subsequent FoI request. It has been rejected.

Despite confirming they hold the information, the Cabinet Office is refusing to reveal when the spy began his/her secondment in the department, and how many days a week he/she works. They have refused to disclose a job description or reveal what responsibilities and duties the employee has, despite them being paid up to £30,000 of taxpayers’ money a year. They have also declined to reveal what level of security clearance he/she holds.

They cite the Data Protection Act, claiming “personal data must be processed fairly and lawfully”. Guido fails to see how any of the information he requested would contravene the DPA. This relates to how £30,000-a-year of taxpayers’ money is being spent, it is without doubt in the public interest. What possible reason could the Cabinet Office have for such secrecy? Guido will be taking this higher…

Yesterday’s poorly worded/suspicious Cabinet Office statement on Prince Charles’ spy in the heart of government had the distinct whiff of a cover-up. Just who is the mystery man, or lady, seconded from the Royal Household? Why is he, or she, there? What exactly is he, or she, doing? Guido has learned that the representative from the Household of the Prince of Wales’ remit centres around a “specialist policy role”. He has reason to believe it is a lady as well.

Despite the obvious implication that someone with close links to the Royal Family is working on government policy, a Cabinet Office spokesman insists that is not the case and they have no role in legislation. The official kick back still refuses to reveal the staffer’s identity, this time on the rather tenuous grounds that it would not be fair since he/she is in a “relatively junior”. Senior sources in the department are now emphasising to Guido that the unnamed person’s role is unrelated to their work with the Prince of Wales and that high-security clearance is not “required”.

So why not just be completely transparent about the arrangement?

Maybe Dave could phone up that shady royal benefactor who got him his job, so we could get to the bottom of this once and for all…

Guido has spoken to numerous sources at the Cabinet Office over the last few days, all of whom seemed surprised to be told that Prince Charles has a secret employee on secondment in the department. Two said they had no idea who the mystery man was and one even asked Guido if he had any more information that could help find him. At last this afternoon the Cabinet Office went on the record on the issue for the first time:

“We cannot give out any information about who the person is or what they are doing here. We can’t give out anything that could lead to his identity being revealed.”

The excuse that anything other than complete opaqueness could lead to Charles’ point man being revealed to the world is hardly satisfactory. What are his responsibilities at the Cabinet Office? How long has he been working there? How much is he being paid? And, most importantly, why is an employee of the Household of the Prince of Wales on secondment in the heart of government? Questions Guido will be putting to them in FoI form this afternoon…