Northern Ireland Office

The complainant requested information from the Northern Ireland Office (the NIO) relating to the lapse of a security licence in 2006. The NIO initially refused the requested information under sections 44 and 31 of the Act. At internal review stage the NIO released most of the information, redacting a small amount of information under section 42 of the Act. Following the Commissioner’s intervention the NIO subsequently also applied sections 38 and 40 to some of the redacted information. The Commissioner finds that the exemptions have been correctly applied, and that the NIO acted correctly in refusing to provide some of the requested information. Therefore the Commissioner requires no further steps to be taken. However the Commissioner has noted a number of procedural breaches of the Act.