Information Commissioner's Office

Cabinet Office

3 February 2016, Central government

The complainant has requested information about the handling of a previous request he made to the Cabinet Office. Initially, the Cabinet Office refused the requests as invalid but, after internal review, it provided some information in response to one of the requests. It sought to rely on section 42(2) (legal professional privilege) as a basis for refusing to confirm or deny whether information was held in respect of another of the requests. It also sought to rely on provisions of section 36 (prejudice to the effective conduct of public affairs) in relation to two of the other requests.  The Commissioner’s decision is that the Cabinet Office should have refused to confirm or deny whether information was held in respect of one of the requests by virtue of section 40(5)(a) (personal data exemption) instead of section 42(2). However, it is entitled to rely on the provisions of section 36 that it has cited in respect of two of the requests. It is also entitled to rely on section 23(5) (security bodies) as a basis for refusing to confirm or deny whether it holds security bodies information in respect of those two requests. No steps are required.

FOI 1: Not upheld FOI 36: Not upheld FOI 40: Not upheld FOI 42: Upheld