Department for Education

The complainant made a request under Freedom of Information Act (“the Act”) to the Department for Education (DfE) for details of emails sent by the Secretary of State for Education Michael Gove to a named individual. In response the DfE said that it held no information falling within the scope of the request. The complainant asked the Commissioner to review the DfE’s handling of his request and provided the Commissioner with a copy of an email sent from a private email account. He alleged that details of this email would fall within the scope of the request. The Commissioner has reviewed this email and found that whilst it was sent from a private email account it was held on behalf of the DfE for the purposes of the Act. By failing to disclose details of the email the DfE breached section 1 of the Act. Although the complainant already has the requested information, this is not as a result of official disclosure by the DfE. In order to comply with the requirements of the Act, the DfE must disclose to the complainant the information falling within the scope of his request of 1 August 2011; or issue a valid refusal notice in accordance with the provisions of section 17 of the Act. Information Tribunal appeal number EA/2012/0072 withdrawn.