Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities

The complainant has requested information about an application to the Building Safety Fund in respect of a particular building. The above public authority relied on section 38 of FOIA (health and safety) to refuse to confirm or deny whether the information was held. The Commissioner’s decision is that the public authority is entitled to rely upon section 38 to refuse to confirm or deny whether the information is held and the balance of the public interest favours maintaining this exemption. The public authority breached section 17 of FOIA as it failed to issue its refusal notice within 20 working days. The Commissioner does not require further steps.
Keywords: cladding