Cabinet Office

The complainant submitted a request to the Cabinet Office seeking firstly the number of ministers of who made declarations about their tax affairs and secondly the names of any ministers and copies of any declarations. The Cabinet Office refused the first part of the request on the basis of sections 36(2)(c) (effective conduct of public affairs), 40(2) (personal data) and 41(1) (information provided in confidence). The Cabinet Office refused to confirm or deny whether it held any information falling within the scope of the second part of the request on the basis of sections 36(3), 41(2) and 40(5). The Commissioner’s decision is that the Cabinet Office can rely on section 36(2)(c) to refuse the first part of the request and rely on section 36(3) to refuse to confirm or deny whether it holds any information falling within the scope of part 2 of the request.