Department for Education

The complainant made a freedom of information request to the Department for Education (DfE) for emails and text messages with the Secretary of State for Education Michael Gove regarding Sandwell Council’s Building Schools for the Future application. The complainant has not received a substantive response to his request. The Commissioner’s decision is that the DfE has breached section 10(1) of FOIA by failing to respond to the complainant’s request within 20 working days. The Commissioner requires the public authority to state what information it holds within the scope of the complainant’s request, and communicate the information it holds to the complainant and/or issue a refusal notice in respect of all or parts of the information it intends to withhold in accordance with section 17 of the FOIA.