Ministry of Justice

The complainant made a four-part request. He complained about the public authority’s decision to neither confirm nor deny holding information about a named probation officer and also not to provide him with a hard copy of a manual which was already available to him. The Information Commissioner’s decision is that the public authority should confirm whether or not it holds the information requested about the probation officer, but that the manual is reasonably accessible to the complainant and therefore exempt under section 22 of the FOIA. The Information Commissioner requires the public authority to take the following steps to ensure compliance with the legislation. It should either confirm or deny that it holds information relating to the probation officer. If held, it should then either provide the information or issue a refusal notice indicating why it is exempt.