Information Commissioner's Office

Charity Commission

26 August 2015, Local government (Other)

The complainant has requested information from the Charity Commission about its inquiry into a particular charity. The Charity Commission has disclosed some of the information and said that some is already reasonably accessible to the complainant (and so exempt under section 21). The Charity Commission has withheld all of the remainder under section 31 (law enforcement). It says that, in addition, sections 40(1) (personal data of the applicant) and/or 40(2)(third person personal information), and/or 41 (information provided in confidence) and/or 42 (legal professional privilege) and/or 43 (commercial interests) also apply to different elements of the withheld information. The Commissioner’s decision is that the Charity Commission has correctly applied the exemption at section 31 to all of the withheld information and that the public interest favours withholding it. The Commissioner does not require the public authority to take any further steps.

FOI 31: Not upheld