The complainant requested a large amount of information about the consideration of complaints he and his family had submitted to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (the PHSO). The PHSO viewed some of the ‘requests’ as invalid, but provided some information. The PHSO withheld information under section 40(1) (first party personal data), section 44(1) (statutory bar) and section 40(2) (third party personal data). It could not confirm or deny whether additional information was held by virtue of section 44(2) (statutory bar). The Commissioner decided that there was no information that had been withheld under section 40(2) that was not also covered by section 44(1). He also found that the PHSO was correct that some ‘requests’ were not valid under the Act. However, he also decided that the PHSO was wrong about other requests that were valid. The PHSO then applied section 44(2) to the requests that were found to be valid. The Commissioner considered the operation of section 44 to all the remaining information. He found that the PHSO applied section 44(1) appropriately to the information it confirmed it held. He also found that section 44(2) was appropriately applied to neither confirm nor deny whether information was held directly for each request and for the requests it had previously classed as invalid. However, the Commissioner has noted a number of procedural breaches of the Act and that the PHSO breached sections 10(1) and 17(1). The Commissioner requires no remedial steps to be taken in this case.
Section of Act/EIR and Finding: FOI 10 – Complaint Upheld, FOI 17 – Complaint Upheld, FOI 44 – Complaint Not upheld
Citations:
[2011] UKICO FS50347380
Links:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Information
Updated: 10 November 2022; Ref: scu.530605