Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS)

The complainant has requested information relating to the Government Art Collection from the Department for Culture Media and Sport (DCMS). DCMS refused to provide the information, citing section 14 (vexatious) as its basis for doing so. It upheld this at internal review.
The Commissioner’s decision is that DCMS is not entitled to rely on section 14(1) in response to the complainant’s requests.
The Commissioner requires DCMS to take the following steps to ensure compliance with the legislation: issue a fresh response that does not rely on section 14 as its basis to refuse to comply with the request.
The public authority must take these steps within 30 calendar days of the date of this decision notice. Failure to comply may result in the Commissioner making written certification of this fact to the High Court pursuant to section 54 of the Act and may be dealt with as a contempt of court.