Secretary of State for Defence (Ministry of Defence)

The complainant has requested submitted a multi-part request to the Ministry of Defence (MOD) seeking information about its targeting lists. The MOD refused one part of the request on the basis of section 12(1) (cost limit), explained that information in relation to another part of the request was not held, confirmed that other parts of the requested information were held but were exempt on the basis of sections 23(1) (security bodies), 24(1) (national security), 26(1) (defence) and 27(1) (international relations), and also refused to confirm or deny whether it held any information in relation a particular part of the request on the basis of sections 23(5), 24(2) 26(3) and 27(4) of FOIA. The Commissioner’s decision is that: the information falling within the scope of parts 1-3 of the request is exempt from disclosure on the basis of sections 26(1)(a) and (b) of FOIA; the MOD is entitled to refuse to comply with part 5 of the request on the basis of section 12(1) of FOIA; and, the MOD is entitled to rely on section 26(3) of FOIA to refuse to confirm or deny whether it holds any information falling within the scope of part 6 of the request.