Ministry of Justice

The complainant requested information from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) relating to its policy on responding to requests for legally privileged material relating to prisoners, including the number of times such requests have been complied with. MoJ provided some information within the scope of the request but refused to provide the remainder. The Commissioner’s decision is that MoJ was entitled to rely on the exemption at section 23(5) of FOIA (information supplied by, or relating to, bodies dealing with security matters) and so was not obliged to confirm or deny whether some of the requested information was held. The Commissioner does not require the public authority to take any steps.