[2025] UKUT 105 (AAC)

This appeal is about section 11 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (“FOIA”) That section, as its heading sets out, is concerned with the means by which communication of the information requested is to be made to the requestor.

In particular, the appeal raises the issue whether the words (and most relevantly the words I have underlined) in section 11(1) “[w]here the [requestor] expresses a preference for communication by any one or more…..means… the public authority shall so far as reasonably practicable give effect to that preference”, encompass a ‘sliding scale’ test or an ‘all or nothing’ test in terms of meeting the requestor’s preferred means of communication.

A ‘sliding scale’ test is one which allows for the requested information to be provided in the preferred means up the point that it is no longer reasonably practicable for the public authority to do so. The ‘all or nothing’ test, on the other hand, is one which focuses on the totality of the information requested and asks whether it is reasonably practicable to provide all of that information in the preferred means.

The relevant preferred means of communication of the information requested in this appeal was transcripts of the audio recordings held by the public authority.