Cabinet Office

The complainant has requested information relating to complaints about the conduct of Liz Truss in her ministerial roles and as Prime Minister. The Cabinet Office initially relied on section 12 of FOIA (cost of compliance) to refuse the request. It later relied on section 1 (information not held) for information falling in scope of the request relating to the period up to 23 July 2022. For any information falling in scope of the request relating to the period from 24 July 2022 to 25 October 2022, it neither confirmed or denied the information was held citing section 40(5B) of FOIA (third party personal information) and section 36(3) (prejudice to the effective conduct of public affairs). The Commissioner’s decision is that the Cabinet Office has correctly relied on section 1 for the requested information relating to the period up to 23 July 2022 and on section 40(5B) for any information falling in scope of the request relating to the period from 24 July 2022 to 25 October 2022. The Commissioner does not require the public authority to take any steps to ensure compliance with the legislation.