Information Commissioner's Office

Independent Police Complaints Commission

16 October 2007, Police and criminal justice

The complainant asked for information from three complaint files. The files held by the public authority related to complaints he had made about another public authority. The third file recorded information about two different complaints. The public authority interpreted the request narrowly and did not consider access to the third file until after the Commissioner began his investigation. However, as the IPCC later considered access and cited section 40(1) in respect of the information on that file, the Commissioner considered the application of that exemption. He has concluded that the section 40(1) exemption did apply. He further concluded that the public authority was not in fact obliged to comply with 1(1)(a) in this regard by virtue of section 40(5). The Commissioner also decided that the information on the two 2000 files would constitute the complainant’s personal data if it were held. Therefore the public authority was not obliged to comply with section 1(1)(a) in that regard by virtue of section 40(5). In failing to inform the complainant that section 40(5) applied the public authority breached section 17(1) of the Act. However the Commissioner has not ordered any remedial steps in the light of the contents of this notice. This decision notice is currently under appeal to the Information Tribunal.

FOI 17: Upheld