Information Commissioner's Office

Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs

26 March 2015, Central government

The complainant has requested information relating to a proposal to repeal section 1 of the Breeding of Dogs Act 1973 (the 1973 Act) under part 6, schedule 20 of a Deregulation Bill. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) considered that the relevant information it held related to the formulation of government policy and was therefore exempt information under section 35(1)(a) of FOIA. It further found that that on balance the public interest favoured maintaining the exemption. The Commissioner’s decision is that section 35(1)(a) of FOIA was correctly applied but that, in all the circumstances, the public interest favours disclosure. The Commissioner therefore requires Defra to disclose the requested information it refused under section 35(1)(a).

FOI 35: Upheld