Downing Street has agreed to publish a Whitehall league table revealing how much government departments have done to cut official secrecy.

In a ruling, to be issued today, the parliamentary ombudsman, Ann Abraham, said that it was hard to see why the cabinet secretary was keeping secret the information, some of which was nearly five-years-old.

The ruling relates to 102,000 documents and requests for information by both journalists and opposition MPs.

Sir Richard Wilson, the now-retired cabinet secretary, had argued against releasing sensitive Whitehall information on the grounds that officials would hold back from offering frank advice if they knew that it would be published.

The ombudsman rejected Wilson's objects.

"I can see no reason why the factual elements of reports and their annexes, as well as those comments the release of which seem to me unlikely to harm the quality of future advice, should not be made available," Abraham said.