THE REGULATION ON MINISTERIAL ADVICE AND ASSISTANCE – ONE YEAR ON came into force, it can still be caught by the regulation on ministerial advice and assistance and declared exempt from access pursuant to this provision. In another case (Case No. 14/03537), the Danish Defence Intelligence Service had written a summary of Norwegian and Swedish law prior to the first reading of a bill on the Danish Defence Intelligence Service. The summary was made on request from the Ministry of Defence which expected requests for information about conditions in other countries during the reading of the bill. The Ombudsman could not criticise the Ministry’s perception that there was an actual reason to assume that the Minister of Defence needed or was going to need advice and support from the Civil Service. So this document also came within the Act’s definition of the regulation on ministerial advice and assistance. In the case regarding the Danish Customs and Tax Administration (SKAT) (Annual Report 2014, Case No. 2014-14) which is described in more detail below, the Ombudsman had no doubts either that this was also a matter of a ministerial advice and assistance document. It may be that (some of) the documents in question similarly could have been exempted pursuant to the former Access to Public Administration Files Act. For instance, if it could be determined that the document was written for the purpose of a ministerial meeting (section 10(i) of the previous Act) or if the conditions for using the Act’s so-called ‘catch-all’ provision (section 13(1)(vi)) were fulfilled. Nevertheless, there is no doubt that the conditions which, pursuant to the previous Act, had to be fulfilled in order to exempt the documents and information which are now covered by section 24 were more narrow, and the assessment pursuant to the ‘catch-all’ provision very much based on an estimate. According to section 24 of the new Act, the authorities do not have to make this assessment. Based on this, the cases mentioned exemplify that the regulation on ministerial advice and assistance can lead to actual restrictions on the access to information. THE REGULATION ON MINISTERIAL ADVICE AND ASSISTANCE DOES NOT ALWAYS CLEAR THE TABLE But there are also limits to the ‘effectiveness’ of the provision. Thus, several examples show that other regulations can ‘trump’ the regulation on ministerial 43