Information Commissioner's Office

Summary: The complainant requested that the public authority provides him with information about how many children born at the hospital in the ten year preceding period had DNA samples stored. The public authority responded that it held no central record, but explained its policy and advised that another public authority may hold the requested information. The complainant complained to the Commissioner. The Commissioner has considered this case carefully. He disagrees with the public authority that obtaining the information from the individual patient files would involve the creation of new information and therefore finds a breach of section 1(1)(a). He finds that there were further procedural breaches of section 10(1) and 17(5). However, he has found that the work that would be required to obtain the requested information would exceed the costs limit and that the public authority was correct in relying on section 12(1). He has also found that the public authority has complied with its obligations under section 16(1) in providing all the advice and assistance that could be reasonably expected of it when processing the request. The Commissioner requires no remedial steps to be taken in this case.
Section of Act/EIR & Finding: FOI 10 - Complaint Upheld, FOI 12 - Complaint Not upheld, FOI 16 - Complaint Not upheld, FOI 17 - Complaint Upheld