Cabinet Office Wrongly Refused FoI Request

The Information Commissioner has said the Cabinet Office was wrong to refuse to comply with an FoI request and said it must release the information requested or further justify its decision not to do so.

The request relates to matters regarding the appointment of Michael Hurley as the inspector for the Area Plan for the East.

Having received the request in July 2021, the Cabinet Office refused to provide any information saying the request was ‘vexatious, malicious, frivolous, misconceived or lacking in substance’. A reject it later re-affirmed when the request was appealed.

However, the appellant complained to the Info Commissioner said to refused on grounds of an FoI request being vexatious any authority has to be able to ‘provide justification for refusing to comply with the specific request’. Something it did not do.

The Commissioner has therefore ruled that the Cabinet Office ‘was not justified’ in applying these reasons to refuse to provide the information requested.

As such, the Cabinet Office has, within 30 days, to either produce the information requested or provide another practical refusal. If the Cabinet Office decides to do the latter, this can be further reviewed by the Commissioner.