Nursing and Midwifery Council

The complainant has requested information explaining why a particular nurse did not have their registration suspended. The above public authority relied on section 40(2) of FOIA to withhold the information. The Commissioner’s decision is that the public authority should have relied on section 40(5B) of FOIA to refuse to confirm or deny whether any information was held and has applied this exemption himself proactively. The public authority breached section 17 of FOIA as it failed to issue a correct refusal notice within 20 working days. The Commissioner does not require further steps.