Information Commissioner's Office

National Offender Management Service

28 July 2008, Central government

The complainant requested information from the public authority that related to communications that passed between the Ministry of Justice, the Probation service and others about the preparation of the answer to a Parliamentary question asked by the complainant’s MP on his behalf. The public authority extended the deadline for responding on four occasions. In five months prior to the involvement of the Commissioner no substantive response to the request was provided. The Commissioner gave the public authority a final opportunity to provide a substantive response to the request and heard nothing. The Commissioner has found that the public authority has breached section 10 as it has taken considerably more than twenty working days to comply with section 1(1) of the Act. The Commissioner also found the public authority in breach of section 1(1)(a) and 1(1)(b) of the Act. The Commissioner requires the public authority to either provide the information or issue a valid refusal notice that complies with section 17 of the Act within 35 days of the date of this notice.

FOI 1: Upheld FOI 1: Upheld FOI 10: Upheld