Home Office

The complainant has requested information about a named hotel he believes is being used to house asylum seekers. The Home Office would neither confirm nor deny whether it holds most of the information, citing section 38(2) (Health and safety) of FOIA. It also denied holding information about the financial accounts of a named company. The Commissioner’s decision is that the Home Office was entitled to rely on section 38(2) to neither confirm nor deny whether it holds the bulk of the requested information. He also finds that, on the balance of probabilities, the Home Office does not hold information about the finances of a named company. However, it breached section 1(1)(b) of FOIA by failing to respond to all parts of the request. Information Tribunal appeal EA/2023/0467 appeal withdrawn.