HM Treasury

The complainant submitted a request to HM Treasury (HMT) seeking information about the assessment of the overall sufficiency of adult social care funding and the local government finance settlement. HMT disclosed some information but sought to withhold the remainder on the basis of section 35(1)(a) (formulation or development of government policy) of FOIA. The complainant challenged this and also argued that HMT had failed to provide adequate or full responses to parts of the request. The Commissioner’s decision is that HMT has located and provided (or withheld) all of the recorded information it holds falling within the scope of the request, and that the information withheld on the basis of section 35(1)(a) falls within the scope of that exemption, but the public interest in disclosure of this outweighs the public interest in withholding it.