Information Commissioner's Office

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You are here: BAILII >> Databases >> Information Commissioner's Office >> Public Health England (Health) [2021] UKICO IC-73557 (24 August 2021)
URL: http://www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKICO/2021/ic-73557.html
Cite as: [2021] UKICO IC-73557

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Public Health England

The complainant has requested information about the decision to de-classify COVID-19 as a High Consequence Infectious Disease. Public Health England (“PHE”), provided some information but withheld the remainder, relying on section 36 of the FOIA (prejudice to the effective conduct of public affairs) to do so. The Commissioner’s decision is that PHE is not entitled to rely on section 36 in respect of two out of the three documents it has withheld. Where PHE is entitled to rely on section 36, the public interest favours maintaining the exemption. PHE also breached both section 10 and section 17 of the FOIA in responding to the request. The Commissioner requires PHE to take the following steps to ensure compliance with the legislation: disclose, to the complainant, the documents it has identified to the Commissioner as Annex B and C respectively.

FOI 17: Complaint upheld FOI 10: Complaint upheld FOI 36: Complaint partly upheld

Decision notice: IC-73557