Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy

The complainant has requested information concerning a structural review at the Pubs Code Adjudicator’s office (“PCA”). The Commissioner’s decision is that BEIS has appropriately relied on FOIA section 36(2)(b)(i)& (ii) - prejudice to effective conduct of public affairs – to withhold the requested information. The Commissioner does not require the public authority to take any steps to ensure compliance with the legislation. Please note the date of the request is incorrect in the decision notice, the request was made on 3 March 2020 and an initial response was sent on 31 March 2020 with a substantive response sent on 29 April 2020. Therefore the Commissioner does not find a breach of section 17(1) in respect of the time taken to issue the initial response.