[2025] UKUT 076 (AAC)

Section 50 of FOIA is about complaints to the Information Commissioner and sets out (insofar as is relevant):

“Application for decision by Commissioner.

50.-(1) Any person (in this section referred to as “the complainant”) may apply to the Commissioner for a decision whether, in any specified respect, a request for information made by the complainant to a public authority has been dealt with in accordance with the requirements of Part I.

(2)

On receiving an application under this section, the Commissioner shall make a decision unless it appears to him—

(a)

that the complainant has not exhausted any complaints procedure which is provided by the public authority in conformity with the code of practice under section 45,

(b)

that there has been undue delay in making the application,

(c)

that the application is frivolous or vexatious, or

(d)

that the application has been withdrawn or abandoned.

(3)

Where the Commissioner has received an application under this section, he shall either—

(a)

notify the complainant that he has not made any decision under this section as a result of the application and of his grounds for not doing so, or

(b)

serve notice of his decision (in this Act referred to as a “decision notice”) on the complainant and the public authority.

(4)

Where the Commissioner decides that a public authority—

(a)

has failed to communicate information, or to provide confirmation or denial, in a case where it is required to do so by section 1(1), or

(b)

has failed to comply with any of the requirements of sections 11 and 17,

the decision notice must specify the steps which must be taken by the authority for complying with that requirement and the period within which they must be taken.

(5)

A decision notice must contain particulars of the right of appeal conferred by section 57.

(6)

Where a decision notice requires steps to be taken by the public authority within a specified period, the time specified in the notice must not expire before the end of the period within which an appeal can be brought against the notice and, if such an appeal is brought, no step which is affected by the appeal need be taken pending the determination or withdrawal of the appeal.”

Sections 57 and 58 of FOIA are concerned, respectively, with the right of appeal to the FTT and the FTT’s duties and powers on an appeal to it. They provide relevantly as follows:

“Appeal against notices served under Part IV.

57.-(1) Where a decision notice has been served, the complainant or the public authority may appeal to the Tribunal against the notice.

Determination of appeals.

58.-(1) If on an appeal under section 57 the Tribunal considers—

(a)

that the notice against which the appeal is brought is not in accordance with the law, or

(b)

to the extent that the notice involved an exercise of discretion by the Commissioner, that he ought to have exercised his discretion differently,

the Tribunal shall allow the appeal or substitute such other notice as could have been served by the Commissioner; and in any other case the Tribunal shall dismiss the appeal.

(2)

On such an appeal, the Tribunal may review any finding of fact on which the notice in question was based.”