Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs

The complainant has requested information relating to specific meetings of the Animal Welfare Committee. By the date of this notice, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs had disclosed all the information it held apart from a small quantity that it wished to rely on section 27 of FOIA (international relations) to withhold. The Commissioner’s decision is that DEFRA has correctly relied upon section 27(1)(a) of FOIA and that the balance of the public interest favours maintaining the exemption. DEFRA breached section 10 of FOIA as it failed to identify all the information that it held within the scope of the request within 20 working days. The Commissioner does not require further steps. First-tier tribunal (General Regulatory chamber) information rights appeal EA/2022/0317 appeal dismissed.