Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority

The complainant has requested information about trips made to Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. The above public authority relied on section 12 of FOIA (costs) to refuse part of the request and section 27 of FOIA (international relations) to withhold the information within the scope of the remaining part. The Commissioner’s decision is that section 27 of FOIA is not engaged. Part 2 of the request would have exceeded the appropriate limit and therefore the public authority was entitled to refuse it. However the public authority failed to comply with its obligation, under section 16 of FOIA, to provide reasonable advice and assistance. The Commissioner requires the public authority to take the following steps to ensure compliance with the legislation: disclose a copy of the Memorandum of Understanding. The public authority may make appropriate redactions to comply with its data protection obligations; either provide advice and assistance to help the complainant refine her request so that it falls within the cost limit or explain why the request cannot be meaningfully refined.
Keywords: memorandum of understanding