Information Commissioner's Office

National Archives

4 April 2007, Central government

The complainant asked the public authority for information from case papers relating to an unsolved murder case dating back to 1954. The public authority withheld the information under sections 31, 40(2) and 41 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (‘the Act’). The Commissioner decided that the exemption under section 31(1) applied to all of the requested information and that it was therefore not necessary to reach a decision in relation to the public authority’s application of the other exemptions. The Commissioner also decided that in its refusal notice the public authority had failed to address the public interest test properly as required by section 17(3) of the Act, since it had failed to clarify why the exemptions applied to the specific facts of the request or to assess the public interest test in relation to section 31. An appeal was made to the Information Tribunal but the Tribunal has ruled on this appeal and dismissed the appeal.

FOI 17: Upheld