Department for Transport

The complainant has requested DFT to disclose the information it based its decision to add and keep South Africa on the travel list in 2021. They also requested information on the banning of flights from the small window in November 2021 from South Africa. DfT refused to disclose the information citing sections 27(1)(a) and (c) and 35(1)(b) of FOIA. The Commissioner’s decision is that section 27(1)(a) and (c) is not engaged. In terms of section 35(1)(b) the Commissioner found that this only applied to some of the withheld information, not all, and for that which it did, the public interest in favour of maintaining the exemption is outweighed by the public interest in favour of disclosure Information Tribunal FT/EA/2024/0177 under appeal.