Cabinet Office

The complainant has requested influencer guidelines which were provided to Government Communication Service users on 16 November 2023.
The Cabinet Office applied section 21 (information accessible to the applicant by other means) to the first page of the guidelines only and withheld the remaining requested information under section 35(1)(a)(formulation or development of government policy).
The Commissioner’s decision is that section 21 is engaged in respect of the first page of the withheld information but section 35(1)(a) is not engaged to the remaining information.

The Commissioner requires the Cabinet Office to take the following step to ensure compliance with the legislation.

• Disclose all but the first page of the withheld information to the complainant.

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.