East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust

The complainant has requested from the East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust (the Trust) the Building for our Future (BFF) Strategic Outline Case (SOC). The Trust withheld the information citing section 36 FOIA – prejudice to the effective conduct of public affairs. Later, the Trust also cited section 21 (information accessible to the applicant by other means) for part of the information. During the Commissioner’s investigation the Trust confirmed that it no longer wished to withhold certain appendices under section 36 as they were now in the public domain and provided them to the complainant. The Commissioner’s decision is that the Trust has correctly cited section 21 and that parts of the information are reasonably accessible to the complainant by other means. He has also decided that section 36 applies to the remaining requested information and that the public interest, at this time, lies in maintaining the exemption. The Commissioner does not require the public authority to take any further steps.