Cabinet Office
- Date 24 April 2024
- Sector Central government
- Decision(s) FOI 1: Upheld
The complainant has requested the numbers, and copies of, WhatsApp messages between Boris Johnson and Evgeny Lebedev in 2020 concerning the latter’s consideration for a peerage and any other messages about government business. The Cabinet Office’s position is that it does not hold the requested information. The Commissioner’s decision is that the Cabinet Office has failed to comply with section 1(1) of FOIA due to omitting to search its own official records for information falling within the scope of the request and for omitting to ask Mr Johnson whether he holds information falling within the scope of the request. The Commissioner requires the Cabinet Office to take the searches for information which are specified in the decision notice in order to comply with the legislation.