Ministry of Justice

The complainant requested information about the case of an individual executed for murder in the 1950s whose conviction was later quashed, and about the handling of previous requests for information about this case. The public authority refused the requests under section 12(1) as it believed that the cost of compliance with these requests would be in excess of the appropriate limit. The Commissioner finds that the public authority was correct to refuse the majority of the requests under section 12(1), but that this did not apply in relation to two of the requests. In relation to these two requests, the public authority is required to either disclose the information specified, or provide valid reasoning as to why this information will not be disclosed. The public authority also breached the Act in that it did not respond to some of the requests within 20 working days of receipt.