Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust

The complainant has requested information about any misconduct allegations, complaints or concerns following the appointment of a named individual. Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust (‘the Trust’) relied on section 40(5B)(a)(i) of FOIA (personal information) to neither confirm nor deny holding the requested information. The Commissioner’s decision is that the Trust should confirm or deny whether it holds the requested information in questions one and three of the request. However, he finds that it was entitled to refuse to confirm whether or not it held the requested information for questions four and five on the basis of section 40(5B) of FOIA. He also finds that the Trust breached section 17 of FOIA by failing to provide a refusal within the statutory time limit. The Commissioner requires the Trust to take the following steps to ensure compliance with the legislation: Confirm or deny that it holds recorded information within scope of questions one and three of the request. If it does hold recorded information, it should either disclose it or provide a refusal notice in accordance with its obligations under section 17 of FOIA.