Department for Housing, Communities and Local Government

The complainant has requested information relating to due diligence correspondence in respect of the Palestine Expo 2017: Generation Palestine event at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre. The public authority refused to provide this citing section 36 (prejudice to the effective conduct of public affairs) and section 43 (prejudice to commercial interests) as its basis for doing so. It upheld this at internal review. During the course of the Commissioner’s investigation, it also introduced reliance on section 40 (unfair disclosure of personal data). The Commissioner’s decision is that the public authority is entitled to rely on the exemptions it has cited as its basis for refusing to provide the requested information. No steps are required.