London Borough of Hounslow

The complainant has requested information about an internal investigation he believes has been undertaken by London Borough of Hounslow (“the public authority”). The public authority relied on section 36(3), read together with section 36(2)(C), to neither confirm nor deny that it held the requested information The Commissioner’s decision is that the public authority was not entitled to rely on section 36(3) as the public interest did not favour maintaining the exemption.

The Commissioner requires the public authority to take the following steps to ensure compliance with the legislation.
- The public authority must confirm or deny that it holds the requested information;
and
- if it does hold the information, disclose it, or provide a refusal notice in accordance with its obligations under section 17 of FOIA.