Insolvency Service

The complainant has requested information regarding an alleged breach of the Insolvency Rules. The Insolvency Service relied on section 21 of the FOIA (reasonably accessible) and section 40(2) of the FOIA (third party personal data) to withhold information. The Commissioner’s decision is that any information the Insolvency Service held within the scope of the request, not already in the public domain, would be criminal offence personal data. Therefore not only was the Insolvency Service entitled to withhold any relevant information not already in the public domain, but should in fact have relied upon section 40(5B) of the FOIA and not confirmed (or denied) that it held any additional information in the first place. The Commissioner does not require any further steps.