Cabinet Office

The complainant submitted a meta-request to the Cabinet Office for all internal and external correspondence and communications about the handling of four previous information requests. The Cabinet Office refused the request under section 14(1) (vexatious requests) of FOIA. The Commissioner’s decision is that the Cabinet Office is entitled to rely on section 14(1) of FOIA. The Commissioner does not require any steps. In relation to this Notice, although agreeing with the decision itself, the Cabinet Office have raised concerns with us about its drafting – particularly in relation to the ‘Other Matters’ section. The ICO has considered all the points raised by the Cabinet Office and agrees the drafting of the Notice could have been clearer. In particular, the ‘Other Matters’ section refers to matters raised by the complainant in relation to the conduct of officials that are neither within the ICO’s remit, nor that we are substantively commenting on. Indeed, the intent of this section was simply to explain to the complainant this point, i.e. that these were not matters the ICO could consider. This was not clear enough and the ICO has apologised to the Cabinet Office for any concern caused by the drafting of the Notice and has reviewed it fully to ensure lessons are learned.