Cabinet Office

The complainant submitted a request to the Cabinet Office seeking a copy of the Prime Minister’s diary for 30 July 2024. After some delay the Cabinet Office provided him with a substantive response which disclosed some entries, withheld further information on the basis of FOI exemptions, and explained that information on a party political event was not held for the purposes of FOIA. In relation to such entries the Cabinet Office subsequently argued that if such information was considered to be held for the purposes of FOIA, then it would consider such information to be exempt from disclosure on the basis of sections 35(1)(d) (operation of Ministerial private offices) and 40(2) (personal data) of FOIA. The complainant disputed the Cabinet Office’s position in respect of the information about the party political event. The Commissioner’s decision is that the diary entries about the party political event are held by the Cabinet Office for the purposes of FOIA. However, such information is exempt from disclosure under FOIA on the basis of section 40(2) of FOIA. The Cabinet Office breached section 10(1) of FOIA by failing to provide a substantive response to the request within 20 working days.