First-tier Tribunal (General Regulatory Chamber)

FT/EA/2025/0161 - [2025] UKFTT 01186 (GRC)

Fecha: 07-Oct-2025

Conclusions

Consideration

10.

It is important to separate the Appellant’s strong feelings arising from the contested probate proceedings in which he is engaged (including his hope that the disclosure he has sought would enable him to advance his case in those proceedings) from the legal framework laid down by FOIA s40 and Data Protection legislation which the Council is required to follow and the IC and this tribunal must apply (the text of S40 is set out in an annex to this decision). As the IC in his response to this appeal correctly stated:

“It is irrelevant whether the Appellant jointly owns the specified property; it does not change the analysis regarding the disclosure of personal data relating to the named individual. Furthermore the fact the Appellant has reported the alleged fraud to Action Fraud / South Wales police only serves to demonstrate that there are far less intrusive means of addressing such concerns, validating the Commissioner’s conclusion that it is not necessary to confirm or deny whether or not any information is held within the scope of the request to the world at large under FOIA.”

11.

The question for the tribunal is whether the IC’s decision is correct in law. The Appellant has not advanced any argument that there is error; he has merely asserted his desire to have the information. The IC has fully and fairly explained in his DN why the Appellant is not entitled to this information under FOIA where the rights of individuals to privacy about matters concerning their health and other aspects of their private lives are protected. In his decision notice the IC correctly identified the possible legitimate means of obtaining disclosure of the information; as an application to the court handling the probate proceedings, FOIA will not provide disclosure.

12.

The appeal is dismissed.

C G Hughes 3 October 2025

Annex S40 FOIA

(1)

Any information to which a request for information relates is exempt information if it constitutes personal data of which the applicant is the data subject.

(2)

Any information to which a request for information relates is also exempt information if—

(a)

it constitutes personal data which not fall within subsection (1), and

(b)

the first, second or third condition below is satisfied.

(3A) The first condition is that the disclosure of the information to a member of the public otherwise than under this Act—

(a)

would contravene any of the data protection principles, or

(b)

would do so if the exemptions in section 24(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018 (manual unstructured data held by public authorities) were disregarded.

(3B) The second condition is that the disclosure of the information to a member of the public otherwise than under this Act would contravene Article 21 of the UK GDPR (general processing: right to object to processing).

(4A) The third condition is that—

(a)

on a request under Article 15(1) of the UK GDPR (general processing: right of access by the data subject) for access to personal data, the information would be withheld in reliance on provision made by or under section 15, 16 or 26 of, or Schedule 2, 3 or 4 to, the Data Protection Act 2018, or

(c)

on a request under section 45(1)(b) of that Act (law enforcement processing: right of access by the data subject), the information would be withheld in reliance on subsection (4) of that section.

(5A) The duty to confirm or deny does not arise in relation to information which is (or if it were held by the public authority would be) exempt information by virtue of subsection (1).

(5B) The duty to confirm or deny does not arise in relation to other information if or to the extent that any of the following applies—

(a)

giving a member of the public the confirmation or denial that would have to be given to comply with section 1(1)(a)—

(i)

would (apart from this Act) contravene any of the data protection principles, or

(ii)

would do so if the exemptions in section 24(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018 (manual unstructured data held by public authorities) were disregarded;