Foreign and Commonwealth Office
- Date 2 August 2011
- Sector Central government
- Decision(s) FOI 10: Upheld, FOI 17: Upheld, FOI 40: Upheld, FOI 43: Upheld
The complainant requested information from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) about the cost of the Pope’s visit to the UK in September 2010. The FCO disclosed some information but relied on sections 22, 27(1)(a) and 29(1)(b) to withhold the remaining information. During the course of the Commissioner’s investigation the FCO disclosed the withheld information albeit with a small number of redactions applied on the basis of sections 40(2) and 43(2). The complainant does not dispute the application of these two exemptions but wishes a decision notice to be issued to record the FCO’s procedural failings in handling his request. The Commissioner has concluded that the FCO committed a number of breaches of section 17 of the Act in handling this request in addition to also breaching section 10.