Information Commissioner's Office

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You are here: BAILII >> Databases >> Information Commissioner's Office >> Cabinet Office (Central government) [2023] UKICO 89985 (24 March 2023)
URL: http://www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKICO/2023/89985.html
Cite as: [2023] UKICO 89985

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Cabinet Office

The complainant has requested the total number of digital and/or written messages, broken down by platform (e.g. email, WhatsApp, Twitter etc) sent by Dominic Cummings on 7 September 2020 in his capacity as Chief (Special) Adviser to Prime Minister Boris Johnson. The Cabinet Office confirmed that they did not hold the information requested, a position which was upheld at internal review and maintained in submissions to the Commissioner. The Commissioner’s decision is that the Cabinet Office failed to carry out checks and searches for the requested information at the time of the request, and based on the information available to him at the time of his investigation, the Commissioner considers, on the balance of probabilities, that the Cabinet Office will have held the information requested at the time of the request. Unfortunately, Mr Cummings’ subsequent departure from the Government, and the passage of time since the request, means that the information requested will no longer be held by the Cabinet Office. Consequently, there are no steps which the Commissioner can now order to ensure that the Cabinet Office complies with the legislation in respect of the request.

FOI 1(1): Complaint upheld

Decision notice: 89985