Ministry of Justice

The complainant requested information associated with a voluntary redundancy/exit initiative within the Ministry of Justice (the ‘MOJ’). Specifically, he asked for the job description titles and the associated job evaluation scheme (‘JES’) reference numbers, for those whose applications were accepted for voluntary redundancy. The public authority refused to provide any of the requested information, citing section 40(2) of FOIA (the exemption for personal information). The Commissioner’s decision is where a job description title and JES number is unique to an individual accepted for voluntary redundancy, that would constitute personal data and would be exempt under section 40(2) for the reasons set out in this notice. The remaining job description titles and JES numbers are not personal data and are required to be disclosed. The Commissioner requires the MOJ to disclose all the JES numbers and job description titles for all those accepted for voluntary redundancy to whom a unique job title does not apply within 30 calendar days of the date of this decision notice.