Information Commissioner's Office

Treasury Solicitors

8 March 2007, Central government

The complainant submitted an FOI request to the Attorney General, asking for correspondence, papers and files which led to the Attorney General making an application to the Employment Appeals Tribunal to have him declared a vexatious litigant. The Treasury Solicitor’s Department (TSol) (acting for the Attorney General) refused to supply this information on the basis that the information is exempt under section 30 (investigations and proceedings conducted by public authorities) and section 31 (law enforcement) of the Act. The Commissioner decided that TSol should instead have applied section 40(1) (personal information) because the information requested constitutes personal data of which the applicant is the data subject. The Commissioner has nevertheless also addressed the exemptions used by TSol and has further decided that section 30 does not apply but section 31 is engaged with public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighing that in disclosure of the information.

FOI 30: Upheld