Department for Education

The complainant has requested copies of information provided to an independent barrister. The above public authority refused to confirm or deny that the information was held. The Commissioner’s decision is that the information, if it were held, would be the complainant’s own personal information. The public authority was therefore entitled to rely on section 40(5A) of FOIA to refuse to confirm or deny that this information was held. However, the public authority breached section 17 of FOIA because its refusal notice was inadequate. The Commissioner does not require further steps to be taken.