Department of Health (NI)

The complainant requested information relating to the ‘Covid vaccine for under 18s is welcome news’ face covering messaging. By the date of this notice the Department of Health of Northern Ireland (“the DoH”) had not issued a substantive response to this request.
The Commissioner’s decision is that the DoH has breached section 10(1) of the FOIA in that it failed to provide a valid response to the request within the statutory time frame of 20 working days.
The Commissioner requires the DoH to take the following steps to ensure compliance with the legislation.
• The DoH must provide a substantive response to the request in accordance with its obligations under the FOIA.
The DoH must take these steps within 35 calendar days of the date of this decision notice. Failure to comply may result in the Commissioner making written certification of this fact to the High Court pursuant to section 54 of the FOIA and may be dealt with as a contempt of court.