Chief Constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI)

The complainant has requested information from the Police Service of Northern Ireland (the PSNI) regarding a specific murder case. The PSNI refused the request citing section 14(2). The Commissioner’s decision is that the PSNI was entitled to rely on section 14(2) when refusing part of the request, but was not entitled to rely on section 14(2) for the remaining parts of the requests. The Commissioner also finds that PSNI breached section 10(1) by failing to respond to request one within 20 working days. The Commissioner requires the PSNI to take the following steps to ensure compliance with the legislation. Either disclose the requested information, or issue an appropriate refusal notice which does not rely on section 14(2) as outlined in paragraph 34. The PSNI must take these steps within 30 calendar days of the date of this decision notice. Failure to comply may result in the Commissioner making written certification of this fact to the High Court pursuant to section 54 of the Act and may be dealt with as a contempt of court.