Home Office

The complainant requested information from the Home Office about drugs found on ships in a specified area and over a significant time period. After initially refusing the request under section 31 of FOIA, the exemption for law enforcement, the Home Office revised its position at internal review and instead said it could ‘neither confirm nor deny’ on cost grounds whether it held the requested information, citing section 12(2) of FOIA. The Commissioner’s decision is that the Home Office was entitled to neither confirm nor deny the request in accordance with section 12(2) of FOIA. She also finds that it complied with its section 16 obligations to provide advice and assistance. The complainant also asked the Commissioner to consider the delays in this case. Having done so, the Commissioner finds the Home Office responded to the request within the statutory 20 working days’ time limit, therefore, there was no breach of sections 1 or 10 of FOIA. She has commented on the internal review delay in the ’Other matters’ section of this notice.