Cabinet Office
- Date 31 March 2022
- Sector Central government
- Decision(s) FOI 35: Partly upheld, FOI 43: Partly upheld
The complainant has requested information concerning a meeting between Michael Gove (then Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Secretary of State for the Cabinet Office) and the American software company, Palantir. The Cabinet Office withheld the information on the basis of sections 35(1)(a)(formulation or development of government policy), 35(1)(d)(information relating to the operation of any Ministerial office) 43(2)(prejudice to commercial interests), 21(1)(information reasonably accessible by other means) and 40(2)(third party personal data). In her complaint to the Commissioner, the complainant challenged the application of sections 35 and 43.
In respect of section 35(1)(a) and (d), the Commissioner’s decision is that the
Cabinet Office correctly applied the exemptions to the withheld information but that the balance of the public interest favours disclosing most of the withheld information. In respect of section 43(2), the Commissioner’s decision is that the exemption does not apply to most of the withheld information. With regard to the parts of the withheld information that the Commissioner does consider to be exempt under section 43(2), the Commissioner finds that the balance of the public interest supports maintaining the exemption to this information.
The Commissioner requires the Cabinet Office to take the following steps to
ensure compliance with the legislation.
- Disclose the parts of the withheld information specified in the Confidential Annex attached to this decision notice.
The public authority must take these steps within 35 calendar days of the date
of this decision notice. Failure to comply may result in the Commissioner
making written certification of this fact to the High Court pursuant to section 54
of FOIA and may be dealt with as a contempt of court.