National Archives
- Date 4 December 2023
- Sector Central government
- Decision(s) FOI 17: Upheld, FOI 27: Not upheld
The Commissioner’s decision is that the National Archives is entitled to withhold information in ‘FCO 40/3624/1 - Closed extracts: Folios 5, 8 and attachments From the open parent piece FCO 40/3624: Sino-British Joint Declaration on Hong Kong’, under section 27(1)(a) of FOIA. This is because disclosing it would prejudice relations between the UK and other States. The National Archives breached section 17(1) of FOIA as it didn’t provide a refusal notice within the required timescale. It’s not necessary for the National Archives to take any corrective steps.