Information Commissioner's Office

Cabinet Office

18 June 2008, Central government

The complainant asked for a list of requests made to the Cabinet Office, showing in each instance, the date of the Cabinet Office’s response and whether the request resulted in full, partial or non disclosure of information. The Cabinet Office responded that the information was not held. The Cabinet Office has argued that the process of gathering the information requested into a list constitutes information “creation”, an activity which the Act does not require public authorities to undertake. The Commissioner does not accept this view and has found that information falling within the scope of the request was held by the Cabinet Office. In failing to communicate this the Cabinet Office breached section 1(1) of the Act. The Commissioner instructed the Cabinet Office to provide the complainant with the requested information or, should they estimate that to do so would exceed the “appropriate limit” as defined in the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004, provide the complaint with an indication of what information can be provided within the appropriate limit to assist the complainant in reframing the request so that it might be accommodated within the appropriate limit.

FOI 1: Upheld