Information Commissioner's Office

Department for Work and Pensions

14 August 2007, Central government

The complainant requested a copy of the risk assessment on telephony carried out by DWP. After having initially refused to disclose the information, DWP later provided the documents it considered relevant to the request. These were taken from a wider report that the authority did not disclose in full as it was considered to be outside the scope of the request. This was challenged by the complainant. The Commissioner viewed all the information held and agreed that the information withheld from the complainant is outside of his request and therefore DWP is not required to disclose it. The Commissioner found that DWP failed to respond to the complainant’s request within 20 working days and was in breach of section 10 of the Act. The Commissioner also found that as the refusal notice issued was outside of the 20 working days that DWP were in breach of section 17 of the Act. This decision notice is currently under appeal to the Information Tribunal.

FOI 10: Upheld