EA-2023-0405 - [2024] UKFTT 00700 (GRC)

The Independent is not clear on what individuals constitute the category of data subjects who are ‘individuals other than Mr Sunak’. It was submitted that if the personal data contained in the information sought belongs to either Rishi Sunak or to junior officials that seems potentially incompatible with the Commissioner’s conclusion as to the international relations exemption, that disclosure would encroach on “the confidential space needed to conduct effective relations with senior representatives of other states” (unless the personal data exemption was not relied upon to withhold that information, in which case there is perhaps no such incompatibility).

It was argued that the reasonable expectations of any ‘junior officers’ whose personal data is contained in the information sought needs to be carefully considered in the context of the Request. These ‘junior officers’ are individuals who work for, and with, Rishi Sunak, and whose responsibilities included having input or insight into correspondence with US officials relating to the serious and significant matter of Rishi Sunak’s green card and his upcoming travel to the US on a trip in a public capacity. That information is of a particular nature – and the responsibilities of a particular level – that those junior officers whose personal data is contained in the information sought would inevitably have had a reasonable expectation that their personal data may be disclosable.

To the extent that the legitimate interest of disclosure was overridden, it is submitted that a more proportionate approach would have been to redact identifying details relating to those individuals.