Appointment of Information Commissioner

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Thank you for your e-mail.

If your message was a request for information please be advised that your
request is being dealt with and you will receive a written acknowledgement
shortly.

Data Access & Compliance Unit

Information Directorate

Ministry of Justice
6th Floor, Zone B, Postal Point 6.23
102 Petty France
London
SW1H 9AJ

Fax: 0203 334 2245

E-mail: [email address]

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Freedom of Information Request FOI/63884/10

Data Access & Compliance Unit
Information Directorate
Zone 6 B
Post point 6.25
102 Petty France
London
SW1H 9AJ

T 020 3334 3251
F 020 3334 2245
E [email address]

www.justice.gov.uk

05-MAR-10 Our Ref:FOI/63884/10

Dear Mr Davis,

SUBJECT: Freedom of Information Request

Thank you for your correspondence of March 2, 2010, in which you asked
for information regarding the filling of the Information
Commissioner vacancy under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA)
from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ).

You will receive a response from us by March 31, 2010. Your request has
been passed to the appropriate business unit within the MoJ, and they
will write to you with their decision by this date.

The FOIA does provide a number of exemptions. A qualified exemption
requires that before relying on it we must consider the public interest
test. If the information you have requested is covered by a qualified
exemption(s) under FOIA, the Department is allowed to take longer than
20 working days to respond. This is because in such circumstances we are
required to consider the public interest issues when deciding whether or
not to disclose the information requested.

If more time is needed to consider the public interest issues under a
qualified exemption(s), we will write to you and inform you of the
revised date you can expect to receive a response to your request.

If you have any queries regarding this request please do not hesitate to
contact us. Please quote ref: FOI/63884/10 in all future correspondence.

Yours sincerely,

Hannah Law
(Sent on behalf of Caroline Banjo)
Data Access and Compliance Unit

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Mr Davis,

Please find attached a response to your FOI request of 2 March.

Kind regards

Robert Lennox

EU & International Data Protection Policy
Ministry of Justice
6.19 102 Petty France
London
SW1H 9AJ

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by e-mail.

This e-mail (whether you are the sender or the recipient) may be
monitored, recorded and retained by the Ministry of Justice. E-mail
monitoring / blocking software may be used, and e-mail content may be
read at any time. You have a responsibility to ensure laws are not
broken when composing or forwarding e-mails and their contents.

show quoted sections

Communications via the GSi may be automatically logged, monitored and/or
recorded for legal purposes.

This is an Auto Reply from the Data Access & Compliance Unit.

Thank you for your e-mail.

If your message was a request for information please be advised that your
request is being dealt with and you will receive a written acknowledgement
shortly.

Data Access & Compliance Unit

Information Directorate

Ministry of Justice
6th Floor, Zone B, Postal Point 6.23
102 Petty France
London
SW1H 9AJ

Fax: 0203 334 2245

E-mail: [email address]

This e-mail (and any attachment) is intended only for the attention of
the addressee(s). Its unauthorised use, disclosure, storage or copying
is not permitted. If you are not the intended recipient, please destroy all
copies and inform the sender by return e-mail.

Internet e-mail is not a secure medium. Any reply to this message
could be intercepted and read by someone else. Please bear that in
mind when deciding whether to send material in response to this message
by e-mail.

This e-mail (whether you are the sender or the recipient) may be
monitored, recorded and retained by the Ministry of Justice. E-mail
monitoring / blocking software may be used, and e-mail content may be
read at any time. You have a responsibility to ensure laws are not
broken when composing or forwarding e-mails and their contents.

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Communications via the GSi may be automatically logged, monitored and/or
recorded for legal purposes.

Internal Review IR/64637/10

Data Access & Compliance Unit
Information Directorate
Zone 6 B
Post point 6.25
102 Petty France
London
SW1H 9AJ

T 020 3334 3237
F 020 3334 2245
E [email address]

www.justice.gov.uk

14-APR-10 Our Ref:IR/64637/10

Dear Mr Davis,

Thank you for your correspondence of April 8, 2010, in which you asked
for an Internal Review into handling of your request for information
with reference number FOI/63884/10 .

Your request for an Internal Review is being handled in accordance with
the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and will be passed to the Unit that
will carry out this process.

You will be contacted separately by the person conducting the review but
in the meantime please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any
queries. Please quote Ref: IR/64637/10 in all future correspondence.

Yours sincerely,

James Noble
(Sent on behalf of Michael Evans)
Data Access and Compliance Unit

This e-mail (and any attachment) is intended only for the attention of
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is not permitted. If you are not the intended recipient, please destroy all
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Internet e-mail is not a secure medium. Any reply to this message
could be intercepted and read by someone else. Please bear that in
mind when deciding whether to send material in response to this message
by e-mail.

This e-mail (whether you are the sender or the recipient) may be
monitored, recorded and retained by the Ministry of Justice. E-mail
monitoring / blocking software may be used, and e-mail content may be
read at any time. You have a responsibility to ensure laws are not
broken when composing or forwarding e-mails and their contents.

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Mr Matthew Davis
E-mail address: [1]mailto:[FOI #29998 email]

Our Ref: 64637
Date: 19 April 2010

Dear Mr Davis,

Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the Act) - Outcome of review of previous
decision to exempt disclosure of information under section 40(2) of the
Act.

Thank you for your e-mail of 8 April, requesting a review of the Ministry
of Justice's (MOJ) decision to refuse to disclose the interview panel's
notes made during their consideration of the vacancy of Information
Commissioner. You will recall your request was originally refused under
section 40(2) of the Act.

In your request for an internal review you suggested that if we
de-personalise the interview notes for each candidate section 40(2) of the
Act would not apply.

Your request has been passed to me to consider. I would like to begin by
stating that I will be upholding our previous decision to refuse to
release this information under section 40(2) of the Act for the following
reasons.

The release of personal information is exempt by virtue of s40 of the Act.
The exemption is designed to address the tension between public access to
official information and the need to protect personal information. Section
40(2) sets out the exemption for someone else's personal data (third party
data) if one of the conditions in section 40(3) are met. These conditions
require that we refer back to the Data Protection Act 1998. The most
common condition of the exemption to apply is where disclosure would
breach one of the data protection principles contained in Schedule 1 of
the DPA.

I have gone through the interview notes the panel produced and I am
satisfied that they contain the personal information of the prospective
candidates which includes the candidates past experience and views and
opinions of the panel members about the candidates. I am satisfied that it
would be unfair to release this information as the candidates would have
every expectation that personal information contained in the interview
notes would not be released and treated as confidential.

I have also considered whether the panel's interview notes could be
de-personalized by removing personal information about candidates and
found that this is not possible as the interview notes would always
contain sufficient information to identify individuals. Because of the
small pool of candidates, 5 were interviewed; it would be relatively easy
to identify individuals from the interview notes.

I will therefore be upholding our previous decision to withhold copies of
the interview notes of the panel under section 40(2) of the Act.

I hope my review adequately answers your questions; however, you have a
further right to ask the Information Commissioner to review my decision if
you are not content. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:

The Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House,
Water Lane,
Wilmslow,
Cheshire,
SK9 5AF.

E-mail: [email address]

Yours Sincerely,

Michael Evans| Internal Review Case Adviser | Data Access & Compliance
Unit | 102 Petty France | Ministry of Justice | 020 3334 3237.

This e-mail (and any attachment) is intended only for the attention of
the addressee(s). Its unauthorised use, disclosure, storage or copying
is not permitted. If you are not the intended recipient, please destroy all
copies and inform the sender by return e-mail.

Internet e-mail is not a secure medium. Any reply to this message
could be intercepted and read by someone else. Please bear that in
mind when deciding whether to send material in response to this message
by e-mail.

This e-mail (whether you are the sender or the recipient) may be
monitored, recorded and retained by the Ministry of Justice. E-mail
monitoring / blocking software may be used, and e-mail content may be
read at any time. You have a responsibility to ensure laws are not
broken when composing or forwarding e-mails and their contents.

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Communications via the GSi may be automatically logged, monitored and/or
recorded for legal purposes.

References

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1. mailto:[FOI #29998 email]