The complainant requested a copy of a central database of outstanding prison repair or maintenance work. The Ministry of Justice (the ‘MOJ’) initially refused to provide any of the requested information citing section 31(1)(f), the exemption for law enforcement, specifically the maintenance and security of good order in prisons. Following an internal review, the MOJ reconsidered and provided the complainant with some of the requested information, but it maintained section 31(1)(f) applied to the detail of the actual work orders. Ultimately, during the course of the Commissioner’s investigation, the MOJ disclosed further information to the complainant with redactions citing section 31, section 38 (health and safety) and section 40 (personal information). The MOJ also said that to carry out any further work on the remaining withheld information would engage section 14(1) (vexatious request) due to the oppressive burden this would place on it. The complainant confirmed he was not interested in the information redacted under section 40 of the FOIA so the Commissioner has excluded this from her investigation. Despite the Commissioner requesting its submissions, the MOJ failed to provide any arguments to support its reliance on section 38 of the FOIA. The Commissioner’s decision is that the MOJ failed to demonstrate that section 38 was engaged. The Commissioner also finds that the redactions including the prison names within the information, disclosed to the complainant during her investigation, were correctly withheld on the basis of the exemption contained at section 31(1)(f) of FOIA, and she finds that the balance of the public interest favoured maintaining the exemption. For the reasons set out in this notice, the Commissioner also finds that the MOJ was entitled to cite section 14(1) in relation to carrying out any further consideration of the withheld information due to the oppressive burden this would place upon it. She does not require the MOJ to take any steps as a result of this notice.
FOI 31: Complaint not upheld FOI 38: Complaint upheld FOI 14: Complaint not upheld
Citations:
[2021] UKICO IC-46204
Links:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Information
Updated: 11 August 2022; Ref: scu.659778
