Information Commissioner's Office

National Archives

30 January 2017, Central government

The complainant has requested access to a closed file at TNA which contained correspondence between Sir Robert Mark, Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police and Lord Mountbatten. TNA opened much of the file for inspection, but ultimately withheld information from sixteen documents under the exemptions provided by section 24 – national security, section 27 – international relations, section 37(1)(b) – conferring of honours, section 40(2) – personal information and section 41 – information provided in confidence. The Commissioner’s decision is that TNA is entitled to rely on the exemptions provided by sections 27, 37, 40(2) and 41 to withhold all the disputed information apart from one document. That document, labelled as document 14 by TNA, was withheld under section 40(2). The Commissioner has concluded that the information in question does not constitute personal data and therefore cannot be withheld under that exemption. The Commissioner requires the public authority to disclose document 14.

FOI 27: Not upheld FOI 37: Not upheld FOI 40: Partly upheld