Ministry of Defence
- Date 11 January 2017
- Sector Central government
- Decision(s) FOI 17: Upheld, FOI 23: Not upheld
The complainant requested information in the form of a file retained by the Ministry of Defence (‘MoD’). This file is not declassified although other related documents in the series have been transferred to The National Archives and are open to public inspection. The Commissioner’s decision is that the Ministry of Defence (the ‘MoD’) has appropriately applied the exemption at section 23(1) of the FOIA, information supplied by, or relating to, bodies dealing with security matters. However, the Commissioner finds that the MoD breached section 17(1) of the FOIA by failing to provide the complainant with a refusal notice within 20 working days following the date of his request. The Commissioner does not require the public authority to take any steps to ensure compliance with the legislation. Information Tribunal appeal EA/2017/0018 dismissed.