Information Commissioner's Office

Summary: The complainant requested the number of weather presenters the BBC employed, the total salary expenditure and their range of salaries. The BBC stated that the request fell outside the scope of the Act because it was for information held for the purposes of journalism, art or literature. However, it was prepared to provide the number of relevant presenters and confirmed that it did not hold the relevant information for those presenters employed by the Met Office. The complainant asked the Commissioner to consider whether the information about the presenters employed by the BBC should be provided under the Act. He has considered this case carefully and determined that the BBC correctly stated that the requested information is held for the purpose of journalism and that it was not obliged to comply with Parts I to V of the Act.
Section of Act/EIR & Finding: FOI 1 - Complaint Not upheld