Information Commissioner's Office

Department of Culture Arts and Leisure

16 February 2015, Central government

The complainant requested information transferred to the Public Records Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI), part of the Department for Culture, Arts and Leisure. PRONI confirmed that it held the requested information but, at the time of issuing this decision notice, had not provided the complainant with a substantive response to the request.  The Commissioner’s decision is that the public authority has failed to respond to the complainant’s request within the statutory timescale. The Commissioner requires the public authority to provide the complainant with a substantive response to his information request. If the public authority decides to withhold any information then the complainant should be provided with a refusal notice giving a full explanation as to why the information will not be disclosed, including details of any public interest test considerations.

FOI 1: Upheld FOI 10: Upheld