Information Commissioner's Office

Valuation Office Agency

30 July 2007, Local government (Other)

The complainant requested information concerning the number of complaints made against an individual employee of the public authority. The public authority refused to confirm or deny whether the requested information was held in the belief that this would constitute a disclosure of personal data that would contravene the first data protection principle. The Commissioner finds that the public authority was correct in refusing to confirm or deny that the requested information was held, but that the refusal notice issued by the public authority was inadequate. Although the public authority failed to comply with the procedural requirements of the Act in its refusal notice, this breach does not necessitate remedial action. An appeal was made to the Information Tribunal, but the appeal was dismissed.

FOI 17: Upheld