Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs

The complainant has requested information relating to meetings between a Minister and CEO’s of various water companies. Defra provided some information on the administration of the meetings but withheld any information relating to the discussions that actually took place and any briefings given to the Minister beforehand under regulation 12(4)(e) as the information amounted to internal communications. The Commissioner’s decision is that the information has been correctly categorised as internal communications under regulation 12(4)(e). He finds that the public interest favours disclosure of some of the withheld information but that Defra has correctly withheld the background to the key questions in the briefing documents and the information in the read-outs of the meetings. The Commissioner requires the public authority to disclose the information in the factsheet and the objectives, top lines and key questions (minus the backgrounds) in the briefing documents.