Department of Justice Northern Ireland

The complainant has requested information from the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) relating to employees of the Northern Ireland Civil Service (‘NICS’) who were dismissed due to inefficiency sickness within a specified period of time.  The DOJ applied section 40(2) of the FOIA as a basis for non-disclosure of some of the information (‘the withheld information’).  The Commissioner’s decision is that the DOJ has correctly applied the above exemption to the information not disclosed to the complainant.  The Commissioner has also decided that the DOJ has not complied with section 1(1)(a) of the complainant’s request.  The Commissioner requires no steps to be taken.