Information Commissioner's Office

The complainant has requested information on the diary entries of the Information Commissioner covering a total period of two years. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) provided some information, but withheld other information under the exemptions provided by section 21 – accessible to the applicant by other means, section 22 – information intended for future publication, section 36(2)(c) – prejudice to the conduct of public affairs and section 40(2) – personal information. The complainant has challenged the ICO’s application of sections 22 and 36(2)(c). During the Commissioner’s investigation the ICO withdrew its application of section 36 to the majority of the information to which it had been applied, and also withdrew its application of section 22 to some of the information which that exemption had been applied to. The Commissioner’s decision is that the ICO is entitled to withhold all the remaining information under the exemptions provided by section 36 and section 22. The Commissioner does not require the public authority to take any further action in this matter.