Home Office (Central government) [2021] UKICO IC-66449 (24 August 2021)
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Home Office
The complainant requested information about meetings and discussions concerning the establishment of the Windrush Cross-Government Working Group. The Home Office initially refused the request in its entirety, citing section 35(1)(a) (formulation of government policy, etc) of FOIA. During the course of the Commissioner’s investigation, the Home Office partly revised its position. Whilst the Home Office maintained that section 35(1)(a) applied to the request in its entirety, it cited additional exemptions which it said applied to some parts of the withheld information; namely, section 35(1)(b) (ministerial communications) for one letter, section 38 (health and safety) and section 40(2) (personal information). The Home Office also said that in the event that the Commissioner were to find that section 35(1)(a) is not engaged to any information, or section 35(1)(b) to one Ministerial letter, it would seek to rely on section 36 (prejudice to effective conduct of public affairs) ‘in the alternative’. The Commissioner’s decision is that the Home Office was not entitled to rely on section 35(1)(a) for any part of the request. However, she finds that section 35(1)(b) is engaged in relation to the one letter, and that the public interest favours maintaining the exemption. Having next considered the Home Office’s reliance on section 36 ‘in the alternative’ applied to all the remaining withheld information, the Commissioner finds section 36(2)(b)(i) and (ii) to be engaged (bar the one letter withheld under section 35(1)(b)). She also finds that the balance of the public interest favours maintaining section 36. As a result, she has not found it necessary to consider the Home Office’s reliance on section 36(2)(c), also cited for the withheld information in its entirety, nor sections 38 and 40 additionally cited to some parts of the withheld information. The Commissioner does not require any steps as a result of this notice.
FOI 35:
Complaint upheld
FOI 36:
Complaint not upheld
Decision notice: IC-66449
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URL: http://www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKICO/2021/ic-66449.html
