Ministry of Justice

The complainant made a request to the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office (the ‘JCIO’), which falls under the remit of the Ministry of Justice (the ‘MOJ’). He asked for a copy of the formal misconduct decision for a named judge. The MOJ refused to provide this, citing section 40(2) of FOIA, the exemption for personal information. During the course of the Commissioner’s investigation, the MOJ revised its position and advised the complainant that the requested information was not held for the reasons set out in this notice. The Commissioner’s decision is that, on the balance of probabilities, the MOJ does not hold the requested information. However, by failing to respond to the request within the statutory 20 working days’ time limit, the MOJ has breached section 10 of FOIA. No steps are required as a result of this notice.
Keywords: Judicial Office, section 3(2)