Department for Communities
- Date 15 January 2025
- Sector Central government
- Decision(s) FOI 35: Partly upheld
1. The complainant requested information from the Department for Communities (DfC) regarding the Sub Regional Stadia programme in Northern Ireland. DfC provided some information but refused to provide the remainder (“the withheld information”) citing section 35(1)(a) (formulation and development of government policy) of FOIA.
2. The Commissioner’s decision is that DfC has correctly relied on section 35(1)(a) of FOIA to withhold some of the withheld information, however he does not accept that section 35(1) applies to the entirety of the PEDU report. The Commissioner considers that the Terms of Reference section of the report should have been disclosed with appropriate redactions as section 35(1)(a) does not apply to all of it.
3. The Commissioner does not require any steps to be taken as DfC has subsequently disclosed a redacted version of the Terms of Reference in response to another FOIA request by the same complainant.