Cabinet Office

The complainant has requested copies of copies of correspondence sent between the former Prince of Wales (now King Charles) and the former Prime Minister Boris Johnson in 2021, about climate change, the G20 Heads of State and Government summit, and COP 26. The Cabinet Office stated that it did not hold any environmental information within scope of the request under regulation 12(4)(a). In respect of information that, if it were to be held, is not environmental in nature, it was electing to neither confirm nor deny whether it held any recorded information, relying on section 37(2) by virtue of section 37(1)(aa), section 40(2) by virtue of section 40(5b)(a)(i) and section 41(2) of FOIA. At internal review, the Cabinet Office sought only to apply section 37(2) and section 40(2) of FOIA, and maintained that environmental information was not held. The Commissioner’s decision is that the Cabinet Office is entitled to rely on section 37(1)(aa) to neither confirm nor deny whether information is held, and that the Cabinet Office does not hold environmental information within scope of the request. The Commissioner finds that the Cabinet Office has breached section 10(1) of FOIA by failing to respond to the request within 20 working days. The Commissioner does not require any steps.