Cabinet Office

The complainant has requested documents produced during Exercise Cygnus. The Cabinet Office relied upon section 35 (development of government policy) and section 24 (national security) to withhold the information. The Commissioner’s decision is that sections 35(1)(a) and 35(1)(b) of the FOIA are engaged in respect of this information and that the balance of the public interest favours maintaining the exemption. As the Cabinet Office failed to issue a refusal notice, setting out all the exemptions on which it wished to rely, within 20 working days, it also breached section 17 of the FOIA. The Commissioner does not require further steps to be taken.