Information Commissioner's Office

Cabinet Office

2 October 2017, Central government

The complainant submitted a request to the Cabinet Office seeking information relating to the ‘shortlisting’ of David Cameron’s resignation honours list. The Cabinet Office originally argued that the shortlisting process was conducted in Mr Cameron’s personal and political capacity and thus any information generated by this process would not be held by it for the purposes of FOIA. In a previous decision notice concerning this request the Commissioner concluded that any information generated by the shortlisting process would also be held by the Cabinet Office for official purposes. The notice therefore found that if such recorded information was physically held by the Cabinet Office, then such information would be held by it for the purposes of FOIA. The previous decision notice ordered the Cabinet Office to confirm whether any such information was in fact held. It did so by stating that no such information was held. The complainant disputes this position. Having investigated this matter, the Commissioner is satisfied that on the balance of probabilities the Cabinet Office does not hold any information falling within the scope of this request.

FOI 1: Not upheld