Information Commissioner's Office

Summary: The complainant requested information in relation to the treatment costs incurred by the public authority as a result of a failed human clinical trial conducted on its premises for an anti-inflammatory drug widely referred to as TGN1412. The public authority refused to comply with the requests made in 2006 by virtue of the provisions of section 12 (appropriate cost limit) of the Act by aggregating these requests and treating them as a single request. It nonetheless went on to withhold part of the requested information by virtue of the exemptions at sections 41 and 43(2) (confidential information and commercial interests) of the Act. In terms of the request made in 2007, the public authority relied on section 12 in relation to part of the requests and withheld the information held in relation to the remainder of the requests by virtue of the exemptions at sections 41 and 43(2). The Commissioner finds that section 12(2) applied to a limited part of the requests made in 2006. He however went on to consider the exemptions applied in relation to the remainder of the requests and finds that the public authority wrongly applied the exemption at section 41. The Commissioner accepts that section 43(2) is engaged for some of the information, but he has decided that the public interest in maintaining the exemption does not outweigh the public interest in disclosure. He has therefore ordered the public authority to disclose the withheld information and additionally finds the public authority in breach of sections 17(1) (late refusal notice), 17(5) (late reliance on section 12), and sections 1(1)(b) and 10(1) (failure to disclose requested information within 20 working days).
Section of Act/EIR & Finding: FOI 10 - Complaint Upheld, FOI 12 - Complaint Partly Upheld, FOI 16 - Complaint Upheld, FOI 17 - Complaint Upheld, FOI 41 - Complaint Upheld, FOI 43 - Complaint Partly Upheld