Cheshire Constabulary

The complainant has requested the names of three police officers who, according to news reports, were found guilty of misconduct in 2007. He also asked Cheshire Constabulary to confirm whether a named individual was one of the officers. Cheshire Constabulary cited section 12 (Cost of compliance exceeds appropriate limit) to refuse to comply with the request. The Commissioner’s decision is that Cheshire Constabulary was entitled to rely on section 40(5B)(a)(i) (Personal information) to neither confirm or deny whether it holds information on the person named in the request. As regards the remainder of the request, it was entitled to apply section 12(2) to neither confirm nor deny whether it holds any information falling within its scope. There was no breach of section 16 (Advice and assistance) of FOIA. The Commissioner requires no steps as a result of this decision.