Information Commissioner's Office

Department for Culture Media and Sport

23 June 2008, Central government

The complainant requested from the Department of Culture, Media and Sport various aspects of information relating to the declarations of interests made under the Ministerial Code by Ministers within the Department. The Department supplied the complainant with much of the information it held in relation to the request but withheld the remainder under section 41 of the Act (Information provided in confidence) and section 43 (Commercial interests). By the time of his investigation, the Department no longer wished to rely upon section 43 to withhold the information to which that exemption was applied and had supplied this information to the complainant. However, the Commissioner is satisfied that the remaining withheld information is exempt under section 41. In its handling of the complainant’s request, the Commissioner found that the Department failed to respond within the statutory time limit. In this case, the failure constituted a breach of sections 10(1) and 17(1) of the Act (‘Time for compliance with request’ and ‘Refusal of request’).

FOI 41: Not upheld