Department of Justice Northern Ireland

The complainant requested information from the Department of Justice (“DoJ”) about correspondence exchanged between the DoJ and Police Service Northern Ireland (PSNI) about the subject of purchasing of sexual services, following the enacting of the Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Criminal Justice and Support for Victims) Act (N.I) 2015. The DoJ refused the request under section 14(1) of FOIA (vexatious requests). The Commissioner’s decision is that the request was vexatious and therefore the DoJ was entitled to rely upon section 14(1) of FOIA to refuse it. The Commissioner does not require any steps.