Information Commissioner's Office

Cabinet Office

12 May 2008, Central government

The complainant requested ‘the assessment by the Joint Intelligence Committee of Iraq’s declaration of its weapons of mass destruction in December 2002’. The public authority withheld the information under sections 23(1) and 24(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (‘the Act’). As a result of the Commissioner’s investigation the public authority reviewed its original decision and decided to release the information previously withheld under section 24. The Commissioner accepted an assurance from a senior official that the remaining information had been received from or related to bodies listed in section 23(1) and that it was therefore exempt under section 23(1). The Commissioner therefore required no further steps to be taken.

FOI 23: Not upheld