Information Commissioner's Office

Cabinet Office

20 June 2017, Central government

The complainant requested information relating to polling data from the 2014 Scottish independence referendum from the Cabinet Office. The Cabinet Office refused the request under section 14(2) of the Act as it considered it was a repeat request. The Cabinet Office’s position was based on a case of mistaken identity with the complainant and a previous requester with a similar name. Once this mistake had been pointed out, the Cabinet Office refused the request under section 35(1)(a) of the Act as the information related to the development of government policy, and the balance of the public interest favoured maintaining the exemption. The Commissioner’s decision is that section 35(1)(a) of the Act applies, but that the public interest test favours disclosure of the withheld information. The Cabinet Office also breached section 17(1) as it did not apply section 35(1)(a) within the statutory timeframe. The Commissioner requires the public authority to disclose the information to the complainant

FOI 17: Upheld FOI 35: Upheld