Ministry of Defence
- Date 30 August 2022
- Sector Central government
- Decision(s) FOI 10: Upheld, FOI 17: Upheld, FOI 23: Not upheld, FOI 26: Not upheld, FOI 27: Not upheld
The complainant submitted a request to the Ministry of Defence (MOD) seeking copies of operational directives concerning UK armed forces personnel embedded with other forces. After some delay, the MOD provided the complainant with copies of two versions of the directives which it held but redacted information on the basis of sections 23(1) (security bodies), 24(1) (national security), 26(1)(b) (defence), 27(1)(a) and (c) (international relations) and 40(2) (personal data). The MOD subsequently released some additional parts of the documents to the complainant.
The Commissioner’s decision is that the MOD is entitled to withhold the remaining redacted information on the basis of the exemptions contained at sections 23(1), 26(1)(b) and 27(1)(a) and (c). However, the Commissioner has concluded that the MOD breached sections 10(1) and 17(1) in its handling of this request.