Secretary of State for Defence (Ministry of Defence)

The complainant submitted a multipart request to Ministry of Defence (MOD) seeking information about James Cleverly and his role in the army reserves. The MOD confirmed that it held information for some parts of the request but withheld this on the basis of section 40(2) (personal data) and refused to confirm or deny whether it held information falling within the scope of other parts of the request on the basis of section 40(5B)(a)(i) of FOIA. The Commissioner’s decision is that the MOD is entitled to rely on sections 40(2) of FOIA to withhold the information sought by parts 1, 2, 4 and 6 of the request and is entitled to rely on 40(5B)(a)(i) of FOIA to refuse to confirm or deny whether it holds information falling within the scope of parts 7 – 14, 16 and 17 of the request.