Information Commissioner's Office

Home Office

7 July 2014, Central government

The complainant submitted a two-part information request seeking information about which carriers have transmitted passenger data to the UK in respect of flights within the territory of the European Union (EU). The Commissioner’s decision is that the Home Office (HO) wrongly refused the first part of the request by incorrectly relying on section 14(2) FOIA. He decided that HO had correctly withheld the information requested in the second part of the information request by relying on the section 31(1)(e) FOIA exemption and that the balance of the public interest favoured maintaining the exemption. He further found that HO had not complied with the section 45 FOIA code of practice in that it took too long to respond to the request for an internal review. To ensure compliance with the legislation, the Commissioner requires HO to provide a fresh response in respect of the first part of the request; no other steps are required.

FOI 14: Not upheld FOI 31: Not upheld