Cabinet Office

1. The complainant has requested information from the Cabinet Office regarding a potential surveillance operation. The Cabinet Office refused to confirm or deny that it held the requested information, citing sections 23(5), 27(4) and 44 (2) of FOIA.
2. The Commissioner’s decision is that the Cabinet Office has correctly relied upon section 44 (2) of FOIA as a basis to neither confirm nor deny whether it holds the requested information.
3. The Commissioner’s decision is also that the Cabinet Office has breached section 17 of FOIA as it did not provide the complainant with a refusal notice, specifying all the exemptions on which it came to rely, within the statutory time limit. The Commissioner requires no steps to be taken.