Information Commissioner's Office

Ministry of Justice

23 December 2016, Central government

The complainant requested from the Ministry of Justice information relating to the 2014-2015 pay remit of the Information Commissioner’s Office and the salary increases awarded to its Executive Team in the middle of 2014. The Ministry of Justice disclosed some of the requested information but withheld the rest under sections 35(1)(a), 35(1)(d) and 40(2) of the FOIA. As the complainant did not take issue with the Ministry of Justice’s application of section 40(2), the scope Commissioner’s investigation was limited to the application of section 35(1). The Commissioner’s decision is that the Ministry of Justice has correctly applied section 35(1)(a) of the FOIA to the information covered by Part 1 of the complainant’s request and the public interest is in favour of maintaining the exemption. With regard to the information covered by Part 2 of the request the Commissioner’s decision is that the Ministry of Justice has correctly engaged section 35(1)(d) but that the public interest is in favour of disclosing the information. The Commissioner also finds that the Ministry of Justice has breached section 17(3) of the FOIA. The Commissioner requires the Ministry of Justice to disclose the information in Part 2 of the complainant’s request that the Ministry of Justice has redacted under section 35(1)(d) of the FOIA.

FOI 35: Not upheld FOI 35(1)(d): Upheld FOI 17: Upheld