Information Commissioner's Office

Summary: The complainant requested the number of prosecutions against members of the police force and the members of the legal profession over a ten year period and how many of those individuals had been able to retire on a full pension. The public authority informed the complainant that section 12 applied to this information as it would be required to check through all its manual files. The Commissioner has investigated the issue and has determined that the public authority was correct to rely on section 12 in this instance. However the Commissioner has found a breach of section 16(1) as his view is that the public authority failed to provide reasonable advice and assistance in relation to narrowing down the request. He has also found a breach of section 10(1) for failing to confirm that relevant information was held within the time for statutory compliance and a breach of section 17(5) for the public authority failing to issue a section 12 notice within the statutory timescales. The Commissioner requires no further action to be taken in this case. This decision notice is currently under appeal to the Information Tribunal.
Section of Act/EIR & Finding: FOI 10 - Complaint Upheld, FOI 12 - Complaint Not upheld, FOI 16 - Complaint Upheld, FOI 17 - Complaint Upheld