Ministry of Justice

The complainant asked the Ministry of Justice (the “public authority”) to provide information relating to an offender’s criminal convictions. The public authority initially neither confirmed nor denied (“NCND”) holding any information citing the exemption at section 40(5) (personal information) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the “Act”). During the Commissioner’s investigation the public authority introduced section 12 (the “appropriate limit”). Following further inquiries it subsequently claimed that it did not in fact hold any of the requested information. The Commissioner’s decision is that, on the balance of probabilities, the public authority holds no information. The complaint is not upheld.