Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police

The complainant has requested information about a social media monitoring contract. The above public authority refused to confirm or deny that it held relevant information, relying on sections 23 (security bodies), 24 (national security), 30 (criminal investigations) and 31 (law enforcement) of FOIA in order to do so. The Commissioner’s decision is that the public authority is entitled to rely on section 23(5) of FOIA to refuse to confirm or deny whether it holds information within the scope of element [4] of the request. The public authority has correctly engaged section 31(3) to neither confirm nor deny holding information within the scope of the remaining elements of the request and the balance of the public interest favours maintaining this exemption. The Commissioner does not require further steps.
Keywords: police capabilities, mosaic effect