Information Commissioner's Office

Summary: The complainant asked the Cabinet Office (CO) for information from a named set of files for the period from 1976 to 1998 covering meetings between the British Prime Ministers of the day and the late King Hussein of Jordan. CO disclosed information for the period up to mid-1986 but withheld all relevant information dating between September 1986 and 1993 No information was held for the period from 1994 to 1998. The complainant accepted (and the Commissioner agrees) that the relevant information was exempt under section 27(1)(a) but he disputed the balance of the public interest. The Commissioner decided that CO had wrongly withheld some information but had acted correctly in withholding information for which the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighed that in disclosure. CO breached section 1(1) of the Act and were in technical breach of sections 10(1) and 17(1). Information Tribunal appeal number EA/2010/0116 has been disposed of by way of a consent order.
Section of Act/EIR & Finding: FOI 10 - Complaint Upheld, FOI 17 - Complaint Upheld, FOI 27 - Complaint Partly Upheld