Information Commissioner's Office

HM Treasury

24 April 2008, Central government

The complainant sought the background papers relating to the decision announced in the 1993 Memorandum of Understanding on Royal Finances that the Queen and the Prince of Wales would voluntarily pay income tax. The Treasury refused to release the information, citing section 40 of the Act and, after the complainant had referred the matter to the Commissioner, sections 35, 37, 41 and 42 in addition. The Commissioner decided that the Treasury had correctly applied sections 37, 40 and 41 to the material under consideration but that it had breached section 17 of the Act in not informing the complainant of all the exemptions that it was intending to apply to the information sought.

FOI 37: Not upheld