Ministry of Defence

The complainant submitted a number of requests to the Ministry of Defence (MOD) seeking various pieces of information regarding the Redress of Complaint procedure. The MOD provided some information in response to these requests but withheld a small portion of information on the basis of section 42(1) of FOIA. The complainant argued that further information relevant to some of the requests was held and had not been disclosed; he disputed the MOD’s reliance on section 42(1) of FOIA; and also argued that the MOD had failed to respond to the requests when they were originally submitted to it. The Commissioner’s decision is as follows: in relation to requests (1) and (2) the MOD does not hold any further information falling within the scope of these requests; in relation to request (3) the MOD does not hold copies of reports for the months of January and February 2007; the information redacted from the documents disclosed in response to request (3) is exempt from disclosure on the basis of section 42(1); the MOD did respond to a similar set of requests when they were first submitted on 6 August 2012. Information Tribunal appeal EA/2014/0152 dismissed.