Upper Tribunal Administrative Appeals Chamber

[2023] UKUT 245 (AAC)

Fecha: 14-Mar-2023

This case is about the Freedom of Information Act 2000 ( “FOIA” ), which provides for a general right to disclosure of information held by public authorities, subject to certain exemptions It raises the legal issue of whether, when faced with a docum

This case is about the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (“FOIA”), which provides for a general right to disclosure of information held by public authorities, subject to certain exemptions.

It raises the legal issue of whether, when faced with a document held by a public authority that contains substantial quantities of information which satisfy the criteria for one or more exemptions under FOIA and which may contain information which does not qualify for any exemption, but which is considered likely to be ‘peripheral’ only, the Information Commissioner (or the First-tier Tribunal standing in his shoes) is entitled to:

(a)

decline to carry out a granular analysis of the document to assess what information is exempt and what is not exempt, if such an exercise would not be ‘proportionate’; and

(b)

treat the entire document as exempt.

In this decision I also discuss the discretion under section 50(4) FOIA not to specify any steps to be taken by a public authority even where that public authority has failed to comply with its duties under section 1(1) FOIA, and what amounts to ‘adequacy’ when it comes to a tribunal’s reasons in an information rights context.