Merseyside Police

The complainant has requested information about the cause of a fire at Liverpool Echo Car Park on 31 December 2017. Merseyside Police refused the request on the grounds that some of the information was accessible to the complainant under the civil disclosure process, and was therefore exempt under section 21. It said the remaining information was exempt under sections 40(2) (personal information) and 30 (investigations and proceedings) of the FOIA. The Commissioner’s decision is that Merseyside Police was entitled to rely on sections 21 and 40(2) of the FOIA to refuse the request. However, she found that Merseyside Police breached section 1(1)(a) of the FOIA by failing to confirm to the complainant that it held some of the information described in the request.