Information Commissioner's Office

The complainant requested information about a bulk order of purchases from Hotel Chocolat. The ICO initially relied on section 36 of the FOIA (prejudice to the effective conduct of public affairs) to withhold all the requested information, but subsequently disclosed most of the information it held. However, it relied on section 40(2) of the FOIA (third party personal data) to withhold the name of an employee. The Commissioner’s decision is that the ICO is entitled to rely upon section 40(2) of the FOIA in the manner that it has done. However, the ICO failed to obtain the correct objective reading of the request and therefore breached section 16 of the FOIA.