Ministry of Justice

The complainant submitted a request to the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) for the statistics considered by the Secretary of State for Justice, Ken Clarke, prior to his announcement that the government would not enforce a policy of ‘absolute tariffs’ for anyone caught carrying a knife. The MoJ refused to provided the information relying on the exemption contained at section 21 for some of the information and on the exemption contained at 35(1)(a) for the remainder of the information. The Commissioner has decided that the MoJ was incorrect to rely on section 21 as the information was not reasonably accessible to the complainant. The Commissioner has also concluded that although the remaining information is exempt from disclosure on the basis of section 35(1)(a), the public interest in maintaining the exemption does not outweigh the public interest in disclosing the information.