Cabinet Office

The complainant has requested information about an alleged hack on the phone of the then-Foreign Secretary. The above public authority relied on sections 23 (security bodies) and 24 (national security) of FOIA to refuse to confirm or deny that any information was held. The Commissioner’s decision is that the public authority was entitled to rely on sections 23 and 24 of FOIA to refuse to confirm or deny that any information was held. The public authority breached section 17 of FOIA by failing to issue a refusal notice within 20 working days. The Commissioner does not require further steps to be taken.