Information Commissioner's Office

Summary: The complainant has requested information from the Ministry of Justice about the usage of Wakefield County Court and disabled access. The Ministry of Justice advised it would deal with his request as -�official correspondence-� because it considered his questions to be asking for more general information, as opposed to recorded information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the -�FOIA-�). It informed the complainant that his request would be passed to the MOJ-�s general enquiries department to forward to the relevant business unit for a response. The complainant requested an internal review. To date, there is no evidence that the Ministry of Justice has responded either to the internal review request or by way of -�official correspondence-�. The Information Commissioner-�s decision is that the Ministry of Justice breached the FOIA by failing to recognise the request as valid under the FOIA and failing to respond to it within the statutory timeframe. The Information Commissioner requires the public authority to respond to the complainant confirming or denying whether information is held.
Section of Act/EIR & Finding: FOI 1 - Complaint Upheld