Information Commissioner's Office

Summary: The complainant requested seven items of CCTV footage showing the movements of the perpetrators of the 7 July 2005 terrorist attacks that had been described in the Home Office report of those events. The public authority refused the request, citing sections 30(1)(a)(i) & (ii) (investigations) and 38(1)(a) (endangerment to health). The Commissioner finds that the exemption provided by sections 30(1)(a)(i) & (ii) is engaged, but that the public interest in maintaining the exemption does not outweigh the public interest in disclosure; and that the exemption provided by section 38(1)(a) is not engaged. Although it was not cited by the public authority, the Commissioner has also found that the exemption provided by section 40(2) (personal information) is engaged in respect to footage from which individuals other than the perpetrators of the attacks can be identified. The Commissioner has also concluded that the public authority failed to comply with the procedural requirements of sections 1(1)(b), 10(1), 17(1)(b), 17(1)(c) and 17(3)(b). The public authority is required to disclose the CCTV footage in question, albeit with the footage in respect to which section 40(2) is engaged redacted.
Section of Act/EIR & Finding: FOI 1 - Complaint Partly Upheld, FOI 10 - Complaint Upheld, FOI 17 - Complaint Upheld, FOI 30 - Complaint Upheld, FOI 38 - Complaint Upheld, FOI 40 - Complaint Partly Upheld