The two-year battle to obtain the Treasury’s official advice on the 1997 pension tax raid began on February 16, 2005, with an e-mail request from The Times.

Just weeks after the introduction of the Freedom of Information Act, The Times wanted to know whether, before Gordon Brown’s first Budget in July 1997, officials had warned him of the potentially devastating impact of the abolition of tax relief on dividends paid into pension funds.

They wrote back to say that the Government considered it advice by officials to Ministers and, as such, the information could be withheld under the terms of the Act. The Times requested an internal review.

On April 12, 2005, the Treasury wrote again to say that a review team had been set up to consider the case and that it aimed to complete the investigation within 20 working days.

The Times was eventually told that the review team would report back by July 8.

Finally, more than four months after the request for an internal review, the Treasury concluded that public interest in the information was “clearly outweighed in the case of this information by the effect disclosure would have on the future formulation and development of government policy”.

On September 12, 2005, The Times asked the Information Commissioner to review the Treasury’s refusal. Nine months later, last summer, the Information Commissioner ordered the Treasury to disclose the documents.

The Treasury appealed to the Information Tribunal. At the end of November 2006, the Information Commissioner asked The Times to join the appeal as a party. Two days later the paper began to construct its legal case.

The Times and its lawyers prepared for the tribunal. A date for the tribunal hearing had been set for May 3 and 4 in central London. The deadline for the submission of witness statements was tomorrow.

Then, with no warning, The Times received a telephone call from the Treasury just after 3.30pm on Friday.

“We are releasing the papers to you this afternoon,” a spokesman for the Treasury said.

Soon it would become clear why the Treasury had fought so long and hard to keep them secret: the documents showed that Gordon Brown was told by his own people that a tax raid on pensions would cost savers tens of billions, but he went ahead anyway.

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