Information Commissioner's Office

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You are here: BAILII >> Databases >> Information Commissioner's Office >> Department for Business and Trade (Central government) [2023] UKICO 246235 (8 December 2023)
URL: http://www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKICO/2023/246235.html
Cite as: [2023] UKICO 246235

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Department for Business and Trade

The complainant requested information about a UK-Israel trade and investment meeting in 2022. The request was addressed to the Department for International Trade (DIT), which is now the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) following the machinery of government changes in February 2023. DBT refused to disclose any of the information held within scope of the request, citing the exemptions at sections 27(1)(a) (international relations), 35(1)(a) (formulation of government policy) and 43(2) (commercial interests) of FOIA. During the Commissioner’s investigation, DBT issued a revised response to the complainant. It disclosed some information but withheld other information under sections 40(2) (personal information) and 43(2). The Commissioner’s decision is that whilst DBT is entitled to rely on section 40(2) to withhold the small amount of personal information in the two documents, DBT has failed to persuade him that section 43(2) is engaged for the rest of the withheld information. The Commissioner also finds that DBT breached section 17 of FOIA, because DBT didn’t provide the complainant with a refusal notice specifying all the exemptions on which it eventually came to rely, within the statutory time limit. The Commissioner therefore requires DBT to disclose the information withheld solely under section 43(2).

FOI 17: Complaint upheld FOI 43(2): Complaint upheld FOI 40(2): Complaint not upheld

Decision notice: 246235