Summary: The complainant requested information from the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) relating to chemical warfare tests on volunteers conducted in and around 1960 at a Ministry of Defence establishment at Porton Down. The request was for information concerning the effects of the tests on individual volunteers and the scope for prosecuting members of the then scientific staff at Porton Down. The Commissioner decided that CPS had applied correctly the section 12(1) exemption of the Act; he also decided that it had breached section 16(1) of the Act. CPS invited the complainant to refine his request as outlined in section 16(1) of the Act which he did. CPS responded appropriately and the Commissioner is satisfied that CPS have now complied with section 16(1) so far as they are able.
Section of Act/EIR & Finding: FOI 12 - Complaint Not upheld