British
and Irish Legal Information Institute
Freely Available British and Irish Public Legal Information
[Home] [Databases] [World Law] [Multidatabase Search] [Help] [Feedback]
Information Commissioner's Office
You are here: BAILII >> Databases >> Information Commissioner's Office >> Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Decision Notice) [2009] UKICO FS50188322 (03 March 2009)
URL: http://www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKICO/2009/FS50188322.html
Cite as: [2009] UKICO FS50188322
[New search] [Printable PDF version] [Help]
Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Decision Notice) [2009] UKICO FS50188322 (03 March 2009)
Summary: In October 2007 the complainant asked the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) for information concerning communications between the then Ambassador to Portugal John Buck and the Portuguese police on the subject of the disappearance of the child Madeleine McCann. FCO released some information straight away but also withheld some. Since that time FCO have released most, but not all, of the relevant information held. The Commissioner decided that for the withheld information, FCO had complied with section 1(1)(a) of the Act. For the information which FCO initially withheld but released following his intervention, the Commissioner decided that FCO had breached section 1(1)(b) of the Act and had also breached section 17(1) by failing to provide the information within the specified time limit. The Commissioner upheld FCO-™s decision to withhold some information under the section 27(1)(a) exemption. He also decided that the public interest in maintaining the section 27(1)(a) exemption outweighed the public interest in disclosing that information. As regards application of section 40 of the Act, the Commissioner decided that relevant personal information had been withheld correctly under the exemptions in sections 40(2) and (3) of the Act.
Section of Act/EIR & Finding: FOI 27 - Complaint Upheld, FOI 40 - Complaint Not upheld