Merseyside Police

The complainant asked Merseyside Police a series of questions in relation to an alleged speeding incident it had contacted him about. Merseyside Police said that the questions did not describe recorded information and it refused to respond, citing section 8(1)(c) (Request for information) of FOIA. The Commissioner’s decision is that most of the questions did not comply with section 8(1)(c) of FOIA and so Merseyside Police was not obliged to respond to them. However, the Commissioner found that questions (2) – (4) and (13) did describe recorded information. The Commissioner has exercised his discretion to consider the application of section 40(5A) (Personal information) in respect of that information. His decision is that section 40(5A) is engaged and that Merseyside Police should have refused to confirm or deny that it held the requested information. The Commissioner also found that Merseyside Police breached section 17(1) of FOIA by failing to issue a refusal notice within the statutory time for compliance.