Information Commissioner's Office

Office of the Legal Services Ombudsman

20 November 2008, Police and criminal justice

The complainant requested a breakdown of the amount of money paid by the Office of the Legal Services Ombudsman (‘OLSO’) to its external solicitors to defend itself against a judicial review action brought against the OLSO by him. The OLSO confirmed that it held such information but considered it be exempt from disclosure on the basis of section 43(2) of the Act because disclosure would be likely to prejudice its commercial interests. The Commissioner has examined the information which falls within the scope of the request and determined that it is the complainant’s personal data. Consequently, the Commissioner’s decision is that the information is exempt from disclosure on the basis of section 40(1) of the Act and the OLSO was not therefore obliged to confirm or deny whether it held the requested information by virtue of section 40(5) of the Act. The Commissioner believes that the OLSO should have treated the request as a subject access request under section 7 of the Data Protection Act 1998.

FOI 40: Not upheld