Information Commissioner's Office

Home Office

17 February 2016, Central government

The complainant requested information relating to Home Office handling of subject access requests. The Home Office disclosed some information, but applied a restrictive reading to one part of the request and cited the following exemptions when withholding information from a document within the scope of another part of the request: 31(1)(e) (prejudice to the immigration controls), 36(2)(c) (prejudice to the effective conduct of public affairs), 40(2) (personal information). It also withheld some of the content of that document on the grounds that it was not within the scope of the request. The Commissioner’s decision is that the Home Office misread one part of the request and also failed to identify all the information it held that was within the scope of other parts of the request. In so doing it breached section 1(1)(a) of the FOIA. It is now required to provide a fresh response to those parts of the request. In relation to the document from which some of the content was withheld, the Commissioner finds that its entire content is within the scope of the request and that the Home Office breached section 1(1)(a) when withholding information on the basis that it was not within scope. In relation to the exemptions cited, the Commissioner finds that section 31(1)(e) was not engaged, but that sections 36(2)(c) and 40(2) were engaged and properly relied on. The Home Office is now required to disclose the information in relation to which section 31(1)(e) has been found not engaged. In relation to the parts of this document which the Commissioner has now found were in scope, the Home Office is required to issue a fresh response. The Commissioner requires the Home Office to take the following steps to ensure compliance with the legislation. Provide a fresh response to request (4); Provide a fresh response in respect of the document within the scope of requests (7) and (8) that the Commissioner has now found to be fully within scope; Provide a fresh response in relation to any further information it holds that is within the scope of requests (7) and (8), in line with the description given in paragraph 28 below. Disclose the information that was withheld under section 31(1)(e).

FOI 1: Upheld FOI 31: Upheld FOI 36: Not upheld FOI 40: Not upheld