Information Commissioner's Office

Parliamentary Commissioner for England

24 July 2007, Central government

The complainant wrote to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman to request information regarding a complaint he had made to the public authority against the Department for Trade and Industry. The public authority responded to the complaint by explaining that the information was exempt from disclosure under section 44 of the Act. The public authority said that the relevant statutory prohibition was section 11(2) of the Parliamentary Commissioner Act 1967. After considering the complaint the Commissioner has found that the statutory prohibition applied to the information that had been withheld from the complainant. The Commissioner’s decision is that the public authority applied section 44 correctly and dealt with the request in accordance with the Act. This decision substitutes that made on the 25 June 2007 in relation to the same complaint due to further evidence being supplied by the public authority.

FOI 44: Not upheld