Attorney General's Office

The complainant requested communications from the Attorney General’s Office (the ‘AGO’) regarding the Post Office Horizon Inquiry. The AGO would neither confirm or deny whether the requested information was held, citing section 35(3) of FOIA (formulation of government policy, etc) by virtue of section 35(1)(c) (the provision of advice by any of the Law Officers or any request for the provision of such advice). It said that the public interest test favoured maintenance of the section 35(3) exemption. The Commissioner’s decision is that the AGO was correct to neither confirm nor deny if this information was held and the public interest in this case supports this position. The Commissioner does not require the AGO to take any steps.