Response: Correspondence about the appointment of Emily Middleton
Published 30 September 2024
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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/foi2024-00250-correspondence-about-the-appointment-of-emily-middleton/response-correspondence-about-the-appointment-of-emily-middleton
| Reference number | FOI2024-00250 |
|---|---|
| Date of request | 18 August 2024 |
| Date of response | 30 August 2024 |
| Outcome | Information partially disclosed |
The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (the department) received the following request for information which we responded to under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA):
All correspondence from Peter Kyle to Sarah Munby, Freya Guinness, Alexandra Jones, and/or Emran Mian, regarding the appointment of Emily Middleton as a director general in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, from 5 July to 16 August.
Our response
We can confirm that the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (the department) does hold the information in scope of your request, including:
Annex A
A response from the Secretary to State to a submission on senior civil servant resourcing.
Annex B
Extract from a meeting summary between the Secretary of State and Mike Potter, the Government Chief Digital Officer.
Section 40(2): Personal data of third parties
Some of the information you have requested is exempt from disclosure under section 40(2) because of the condition at section 40(3A) of the FOIA.
Section 40(2) and (40(3A) state:
(2) Any information to which a request for information relates is also exempt information if-
(a) it constitutes personal data which does not fall within subsection (1), and
(b) the first, second or third condition below is satisfied.
(3A) The first condition is that the disclosure of the information to a member of the public otherwise than under this Act-
(a) would contravene any of the data protection principles, or
(b) would do so if the exemptions in section 24(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018 (manual unstructured data held by public authorities) were disregarded.
The department has obligations under data protection legislation, and in law generally, to protect personal data. This exempts personal data from release if disclosure would contravene any of the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the UK General Data Protection Regulation and section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018. Release would breach the first data protection principle since it would be unlawful and unfair to disclose the information. As section 40 is an absolute exemption, the department is not required to carry out a public interest test.