The complainant has requested correspondence and other communications, relating to the 9 September 2019 prorogation of Parliament, sent or received by Dominic Cummings (then Chief Adviser to Prime Minister Boris Johnson). The Cabinet Office has asserted that aside from a memo of 15 August 2019 from Nikki Da Costa (Director of Legislative Affairs) they hold no other information within scope of the complainant’s request. The complainant also made a meta request for all communications relating to the handling of his substantive request. The Cabinet Office withheld that information under section 36 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA). The Commissioner’s decision is that, based on the information available to him at the time of his investigation, on the balance of probabilities, the Cabinet Office does not hold any further relevant information within scope of the complainant’s request. However, the Commissioner considers that the Cabinet Office should have carried out more comprehensive and thorough checks and searches at the time of the request. The failure to do so, coupled with Mr Cummings’ subsequent departure from the Government, means that the Commissioner has been unable to reach a determination in respect of any relevant information which may have been held by Mr Cummings in his private email account(s) or other personal devices.
FOI 1(1): Complaint not upheld
Citations:
[2022] UKICO ic-40467
Links:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Information
Updated: 21 August 2022; Ref: scu.675770
