Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Service

The complainant has requested copies of Special Branch Annual Reports from 1938 to 1946. Having initially withheld the requested information under various exemptions, during the course of the Commissioner’s investigation the Metropolitan Police Service (the “MPS”) cited section 23(1) (information supplied by, or relating to, bodies dealing with security matters). The Commissioner accepts that that this exemption is engaged and the MPS is therefore entitled to withhold the information; he does however find a procedural breach.