Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office

The complainant submitted a two part request to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) (now the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, FCDO) seeking firstly information from 2004 about the ‘involvement in rendition of Sami al- Saadi’ and secondly details of which individuals had agreed the UK government’s settlement with Mr al-Saadi. The FCO refused to confirm or deny whether it held any information falling within the scope of the first part of the request on the basis of sections 23(5) (security bodies), 24(2) (national security), 27(4) (international relations) and section 40(5) (personal data). It confirmed that it held information falling within the second part of the reques

t, but it considered this to be exempt from disclosure on the basis of sections 23(1), 27(1)(a), 36(2) (effective conduct of public affairs), 40(2) and 42(1) (legal professional privilege) of FOIA. The Commissioner’s decision is that the FCO was entitled to rely on sections 23(5) and 24(2) to refuse to confirm or deny whether it holds any information falling within the scope of part 1 of the request. The Commissioner has also concluded that the information falling within the scope of part 2 of the request is exempt from disclosure on the basis of sections 23(1), 36(2)(a)(i) and 40(2) of FOIA.