Home Office

The complainant requested the total cost of expenditure on protecting the Royal Family for the financial years 2017/18, 2018/19 and 2019/20. The Home Office relied on the section 24(2) (National security) and section 38(2) (Health and safety) FOIA exemptions to neither confirm nor deny holding the requested information. During the Information Commissioner’s investigation, the Home Office confirmed that relevant information was held, but withheld it relying on the section 24(1) and 38(1) FOIA exemptions. The Commissioner’s decision is that the Home Office should have confirmed holding information within the scope of the request from the outset but had acted correctly in engaging the section 24(1) FOIA exemption. He further decided that the balance of the public interest favoured maintaining the exemption. The Commissioner did not require the Home Office to take any steps to comply with the legislation.