Cabinet Office

The complainant submitted a request to the Cabinet Office seeking information the Prime Minister held “about the 'dangerous right wing politics' of Nigel Farage and/or Reform UK”. The Cabinet Office initially refused to answer this on the basis that it was an invalid request for the purposes of FOIA. It subsequently accepted that it was a valid request but explained that any information held would not be held by it for the purposes of FOIA. The Commissioner’s decision is that any information held by the Cabinet Office falling within the scope of the request would, by virtue of section 3(2)(a), not be held by it for the purposes of FOIA. However, the Commissioner has concluded that the Cabinet Office breached section 10(1) of FOIA by not responding to the request within 20 working days.