BBC

The complainant requested information from the BBC about diversity commitments. The BBC responded that the requested information was covered by the derogation and hence excluded from FOIA. The Commissioner’s decision is that this information, if held at all, is held by the BBC for the purposes of journalism, art or literature and so was not covered by FOIA. He therefore upholds the BBC’s position and requires no steps to be taken in this case. However, the Commissioner finds that the BBC has breached section 10(1) of FOIA in that it failed to provide a valid response to the request within the statutory time frame of 20 working days.