Information Commissioner's Office

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

3 August 2015, Central government

The complainant submitted a request to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) asking for copies of documents held by the British Embassy in Cairo which mentioned BP and related to the period May 1 2013 – August 31 2013. The FCO disclosed some information in response to this request but withheld further information on the basis of the exemptions contained at sections 21(1), 27(1)(a), 35(1)(a), 38(1)(b), 40(2) and 43(2) of FOIA. It also argued that if any of this information fell to be considered under the EIR then it was exempt from disclosure under regulation 12(5)(e). The Commissioner’s decision is that whilst the FCO is entitled to rely on some of these exemptions to withhold parts of the information, some of the exemptions are not engaged and thus the FCO must disclose such information in order to comply with the legislation. Given the volume of information falling within the scope of this request full details of the Commissioner’s findings are set out in the attached annex. The Commissioner requires the public authority to disclose to the complainant the documents the Commissioner has identified in the attached annex. The public authority must take these steps within 35 calendar days of the date of this decision notice. Failure to comply may result in the Commissioner making written certification of this fact to the High Court pursuant to section 54 of the Act and may be dealt with as a contempt of court.

FOI 21: Upheld FOI 27: Not upheld FOI 38: Not upheld FOI 43: Not upheld FOI 40: Not upheld EIR 12(5)(e): Not upheld