Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office

The complainant submitted a request to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (now the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office) seeking minutes of a meeting between the Foreign Secretary, Dominic Raab, and members of the Hungarian government in autumn 2019. The FCO explained that it did not hold minutes of the meeting but did hold an internal note of the meeting. It provided the complainant with some of the information contained in the note but sought to withhold the remainder on the basis of sections 27(1)(a) (international relations), 35(1)(a) (formulation and development of government policy) and 40(2) (personal data) of FOIA. The Commissioner has concluded that the withheld information is exempt from disclosure on the basis of sections 27(1)(a) and 40(2) of FOIA. However, she has also concluded that the FCO committed breaches of section 10(1) of FOIA by failing to respond to the request within 20 working days and by failing to disclose the information it was prepared to disclose within the same time period. Information Tribunal appeal EA/2022/0012 appeal struck out.