Cabinet Office

The complainant has requested information concerning the conferring of the title of Duke of Edinburgh upon HRH Prince Edward by HM The King.
The Cabinet Office initially confirmed that they held information within scope of the request but that this was exempt from disclosure in its entirety under section 37(1)(b)(information relating to the conferring by the Crown of any honour or dignity) of FOIA. At internal review, the Cabinet Office applied section 42(1)(legal professional privilege) to some of the withheld information and also provided a neither confirm nor deny (NCND) response under section 35(3) as to whether they held any information relating to Law Officers’ advice.
During the course of the Commissioner’s investigation the Cabinet Office applied section 37(1)(a)(communications with the Sovereign) to some of the withheld information and section 40(2)(third party personal data) to the names of junior civil servants.
The Commissioner’s decision is that section 42(1) is engaged to some of the withheld information and that the public interest favours maintaining the exemption to the respective information. The Commissioner has found that section 37(1)(a) applies to some of the withheld information (this being an absolute exemption) and that section 37(1)(b) applies to the remainder of the withheld information and the balance of the public interest favours maintaining that exemption. The Commissioner has also found that sections 40(2) and 35(3) were correctly applied by the Cabinet Office and that in respect of the latter the public interest favours maintaining the NCND response.