Department of Health & Social Care (DHSC)

The complainant has requested communications between the Chief Medical Officer and a specific Taskforce. The DHSC disclosed a number of emails but the complainant considered this was not the extent of the information held. They also queried the redaction of certain names from the disclosed emails. The Commissioner finds that the DHSC has not provided all the information it holds in scope of the request as it has restricted the scope to only emails containing the keyword “Evusheld” in the subject line and not the body of the email. The Commissioner finds this was an unnecessary restriction on the scope of the request and as such the DHSC has failed to comply with section 1 FOIA. However, the Commissioner accepts the DHSC was correct to withhold the names of junior officials from the emails already disclosed under section 40(2). The Commissioner requires the DHSC to carry out a new search that includes ‘Evusheld’ in the body of the email and confirm whether such emails are held and either  disclose these or issue a valid refusal notice explaining why the information cannot be disclosed with specific reference to exemptions under FOIA.