Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office

The complainant has requested risk assessments relating to Afghanistan. The above public authority relied on sections 24 (national security), 27 (international relations) and 35 (formulation of government policy) of FOIA to withhold some information and relied on section 23(5) of FOIA (security bodies) to refuse to confirm or deny whether further information was held. The Commissioner’s decision is that the public authority has correctly applied sections 24, 27 and 35 of FOIA to the information it has confirmed it holds and that the public interest favours maintaining each exemption. The Commissioner is also satisfied that the public authority was entitled to refuse to confirm or deny whether further information was held. The Commissioner does not require further steps.