Information Commissioner's Office

Scotland Office

28 June 2007, Local government (District council)

The complainant requested information from the Scotland Office relating to the Scottish Adjacent Water Boundaries Order. The Scotland Office withheld the information it held in relation to the request by applying the following exemptions, Section 35(1)(a) – Formulation or development of government policy, Section 35(1)(b) – Ministerial communications and Section 42(1) – Legal professional privilege. The Commissioner agrees that these exemptions are engaged in relation to the information but considers the public interest to favour the disclosure of the following information which had been withheld under section 35, Submissions/advice to Ministers and Correspondence between Ministers. The Commissioner has also decided that the Refusal Notice issued to the complainant did not conform to the requirements of section 17 of the Act. Please note that this decision notice was originally served on the Ministry of Justice rather than the Scotland Office due to an administrative error. The summary has been amended to reflect this. This decision notice is currently under appeal to the Information Tribunal.

FOI 17: Upheld