Department for Transport

The complainant has requested information about his company held by the Department for Transport (DfT), including emails between named individuals and any other information referencing him or his company. The DfT provided some information under the subject access provisions but withheld information covered by the FOIA under section 41, 42 and 43. During the Commissioner’s investigation, the DfT accepted the information previously withheld under section 41 and a small number of documents withheld under section 43 could be disclosed. The Commissioner’s decision is that the DfT has correctly withheld two documents under the provisions of the section 42 exemption. For the information withheld under section 43; the Commissioner finds the exemption is not engaged in relation to category 2) information but the DfT has correctly engaged section 43 in relation to category 3) information and the public interest favours maintaining the exemption. The Commissioner requires the public authority to disclose the information previously withheld under section 41 and disclose the category 2) information previously withheld under section 43(2) subject to any appropriate redactions for personal data.