Information Commissioner's Office

Summary: The complainant requested a report relating to trials carried out by IBM on the effectiveness of biometric recognition technology. The public authority refused the request and cited the exemptions provided by the following sections of the Act: 31(1)(a) (prejudice to the prevention or detection of crime), 31(1)(e) (prejudice to the immigration controls), 41(1) (information provided in confidence) and 43(2) (prejudice to commercial interests). The Commissioner finds that the exemption provided by section 41(1) was applied correctly and so the public authority is not required to disclose the information. As the finding on section 41(1) relates to the entirety of the information in question, it was not necessary to also consider the other exemptions cited by the public authority. However, the Commissioner also finds that the public authority failed to comply with the procedural requirements of sections 17(1)(c) and 17(3)(b) in its handling of the request. Information Tribunal appeal number EA/2011/0081 dismissed.
Section of Act/EIR & Finding: FOI 17 - Complaint Upheld, FOI 41 - Complaint Not upheld