Ministry of Defence
- Date 19 December 2022
- Sector Central government
- Decision(s) FOI 1: Not upheld, FOI 10: Upheld, FOI 17: Upheld, FOI 40: Not upheld, FOI 43: Not upheld
The complainant submitted a request to the Ministry of Defence (MOD) for information about meetings between itself and specific parties from April 2020 onwards. The MOD provided information in response to the request, but in doing so redacted information from the documents by virtue of section 40(2) (personal data) and section 43(2) (commercial interests) of FOIA.
The Commissioner’s decision is that the MOD has met its obligations at section 1 of FOIA. He also finds that the MOD is entitled to rely on sections 40(2) and 43(2) to refuse to disclose the redacted information. However, the Commissioner finds that the MOD breached section 10 and section 17 as it failed to provide its response within the statutory timeframe.
The Commissioner does not require the public authority to take any further steps.