Information Commissioner's Office

HM Treasury

16 July 2015, Central government

The complainant has requested information from HM Treasury (the Treasury) concerning the economic research analysis used by the Treasury in preparing the ‘Help to Buy’ policy which was announced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in the 2013 Budget.  The Treasury initially applied Section 35(1)(a)(formulation and development of government policy) to all of the withheld information and later also applied Section 43(2)(prejudice to commercial interests) to some of the withheld information.  During the Commissioner’s investigation the Treasury disclosed most of the previously withheld information to the complainant and relied upon the stated exemptions to withhold the remainder of the information. The Commissioner’s decision is that the Treasury correctly applied Section 35(1)(a) to the residual withheld information (the only part of the information which was also withheld under Section 43(2)) but that at the time of the request most of the information was not exempt by virtue of Section 35(1)(a).  In failing to provide the complainant with this information, the Treasury breached Section 1(1)(b) and Section 10(1) of FOIA.  However, as the Treasury has since provided the complainant with the relevant information which was not appropriately withheld, the Commissioner does not require the Treasury to take any further steps in this matter.

FOI 1: Upheld FOI 10: Upheld FOI 35: Not upheld FOI 43: Not upheld