Information Commissioner's Office

Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs

23 April 2007, Central government

The complainant requested information about the tendering process for a research project including the successful submission. The Commissioner found that some of the information that the complainant believed should have been disclosed was not held at the time the request was made or had in fact had been released. Other information had been withheld under section 43.The Commissioner found that the refusal notices issued by the public authority failed to adequately explain the reasons why the exemption was engaged and why the public interest favoured maintaining the exemption. This constitutes breaches of section 17. The public authority also failed to provide any of the information which it considered was not exempt within the statutory time limit, this constitutes a breach of the section10. In relation to the small amount of information that was withheld under section 43, the Commissioner found that the information, including that detailing the rates charged for specific elements of the project was not commercially sensitive and so should have been released. This constitutes a beach of section 1.

FOI 10: Upheld