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You are here: BAILII >> Databases >> Information Commissioner's Office >> Department of Health and Social Care (Central government) [2020] UKICO fs50865947 (27 July 2020)
URL: http://www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKICO/2020/fs50865947.html
Cite as: [2020] UKICO fs50865947
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Department of Health and Social Care
The complainant has made a two part request for information about draft regulations relating to pharmacists. The Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) refused the information under section 35(1)(a) of the FOIA – information relating to the formulation or development of government policy. During the course of the Commissioner’s investigation the DHSC also applied section 36 – prejudice to the conduct of public affairs, to a limited amount of the information. It later withdrew its reliance on this exemption. However it also stated that other information was being withheld under section 21 – accessible to the applicant by other means and section 40(2) – personal information. The Commissioner’s decision is that the DHSC was entitled to rely on section 35(1)(a) in respect of only some of the information to which it was applied. The DHSC also breached section 10 of the FOIA by failing to provide the information it tried to apply section 36 to, only to later withdraw its reliance on that exemption. However the DHSC was entitled to rely on section 21 to withhold the information to which that exemption had been applied, but by failing to inform the complainant of its application within the statutory time for doing so, the DHSC breached section 17(1). Finally the DHSC is entitled to withhold one name from one document, the agenda of the meeting of 7 April 2016. But by failing to disclose the rest of the information from the agenda it has breached section 1 – the duty to communicate information. The Commissioner requires the public authority to take the following steps to ensure compliance with the legislation. Disclose the information which the DHSC has withheld under section 35(1)(a) but in respect to which the Commissioner has found the exemption cannot be relied on. If it has not done so already, the DHSC is required to provide the information which at one point it applied section 36 to. Disclose the information from the agenda apart from the one name that which can be withheld under section 40(2).FOI 10: Complaint upheld FOI 21: Complaint not upheld FOI 40: Complaint partly upheld FOI 17: Complaint upheld FOI 35: Complaint partly upheld FOI 1: Complaint upheld
Decision notice: fs50865947