Information Commissioner's Office

Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner for Kent

18 July 2017, Police and criminal justice

The complainant has requested information about any meetings between the Police and Crime Commissioner for Kent and local councillors during a specified period. The Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner for Kent (“the OPCC”) disclosed details of a meeting that the Police and Crime Commissioner had attended in his official capacity. It also said that he had attended three meetings on 22 December 2016 in a personal, party political capacity and that information about them did not fall within the scope the FOIA. Nevertheless, it disclosed such information as it held about those meetings to the complainant, outside of the FOIA. However, the complainant argued that the Police and Crime Commissioner was acting in an official capacity at the meetings of 22 December 2016 and therefore that any information the OPCC held about them was covered by the FOIA. The Commissioner has found that any information about the meetings on 22 December 2016 was not “held” by the OPCC within the meaning of section 3(2)(a) of the FOIA, and therefore that the complainant had no formal right of access to it under the FOIA.

FOI 1: Not upheld FOI 3: Not upheld