Cabinet Office

The complainant requested information relating to the Crown Commercial Service’s (CCS) ‘contract finder’ website search facility. The Cabinet Office – the public authority who is responsible for requests made under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the Act) to the CCS – confirmed that information was held and that it engaged section 43(2) of the Act. This response also stated that it needed further time to consider the balance of the public interest. To date, the Cabinet Office has failed to provide the complainant the outcome of the public interest test. By failing to do so the Cabinet Office breached section 17(3) of the Act. The Cabinet Office has also breached section 17(1) because it took longer than 20 working days to issue its initial refusal notice to the complainant longer following receipt of the request. The Commissioner requires the public authority to provide the complainant with the outcome of the public interest test for his information request. If the Cabinet Office decides to withhold any information then the complainant should be provided with a refusal notice giving a full explanation as to why the information will not be disclosed, including details of any public interest test considerations.