Lownie v The Information Commissioner, The Foreign and Commonwealth Office and The National Archives (GIA): [2020] UKUT 32 (AAC)

Upper Tribunal Administrative Appeals Chamber decision by Judge Markus on 28 January 2020.

From:
HM Courts & Tribunals Service and Upper Tribunal (Administrative Appeals Chamber)
Published
4 March 2020
Categories:
Information rights
Sub-categories:
Information rights - Freedom of Information - exceptions, Information rights - Freedom of information - public interest test, Information rights - Information rights: practice and procedure
Judges:
Markus, K
Decision date:
28 January 2020

Read the full decision in GIA/2690/2018.

Judicial Summary

  1. Approach by the First-tier Tribunal (FTT) to a change in position by a public authority after expiry of the time limit for responding to the appeal, so as to extend the scope of information to which it is claimed an exemption applied - application of Birkett v DEFRA [2012] AACR 32 - whether principles in Mitchell v News Group Newspapers Ltd [2014] 1 WLR 795 applied - consideration of BPP Holdings Ltd v HMRC [2017] 1 WLR 2945.

  2. Meaning of “relates to” in section 23(1) Freedom of Information Act 2000 - consideration of APPGER v IC and FCO [2016] AACR 5 and Corderoy and Ahmed v IC and others [2018] AACR 19 - whether scope of section 23 to be defined by reference to section 24 - application of section 23 to anodyne information.

  3. Whether the FTT treated the engagement of section 23 as having inherent weight for the purpose of the public interest balancing exercise in relation to information contained in a historical record - relevance of policy reasons underlying section 23 - whether FTT’s decision was irrational.

Updates to this page

Published 4 March 2020