Secretary of State for the Home Department (Home Office)

The complainant requested information about individuals who died whilst awaiting the outcome of an asylum application. The Home Office disclosed some information, confirmed other information wasn’t held and confirmed that it was withholding other information under the exemptions for investigations (section 31) health and safety (section 38) and information provided in confidence (section 41). The Commissioner’s decision is that the Home Office was entitled to rely on sections 31, 38 and 41 to withhold the requested information, excepting the nationalities, general information on places of death and non-rare causes of death of the deceased. He also finds that the Home Office was partly correct to state that it held no further information except in relation to parts 1(a), 1(b) and 2(d), where it failed to disclose all the information held and breached section 1 and section 10. The Commissioner requires the Home Office to disclose the nationalities, non-rare causes of death and limited information about places of death (not specific addresses) of the deceased falling within the scope of the request and disclose the information in request parts 1(a), 1(b) and 2(d).