The complainant submitted two requests to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) for its ‘report into complaints against government departments for 2018/19.’ The PHSO refused to provide the information as it considered it to be exempt from disclosure under section 22(1) of the FOIA (information intended for future publication). The Commissioner is satisfied that the PHSO is entitled to rely on section 22(1) of the FOIA to refuse to disclose the information and that, at the time of each request, the balance of the public interest favoured maintaining the exemption. However, the Commissioner has recorded a procedural breach of section 10 of the FOIA as the PHSO failed to respond to the complainant’s second request within the statutory time limits. The Commissioner does not require the public authority to take any steps as a result of this decision notice.
FOI 10: Complaint upheld FOI 22: Complaint not upheld
Citations:
[2021] UKICO IC-44027
Links:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Information
Updated: 03 November 2022; Ref: scu.659843