Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs

The complainant has requested DEFRA to disclose all correspondence and communications between Michael Gove and the European Research Group (ERG). DEFRA confirmed that it considers all communications of this nature are party political, do not relate to departmental business and so are not covered by FOIA. However, it has carried out all necessary searches and no information is held. The Commissioner’s decision is that on the balance of probabilities DEFRA does not hold any recorded information falling within the scope of the request. She therefore does not require any further action to be taken.