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20/06/2011
, shows web content acquired for preservation by The National Archives. External links, forms and search may not work in archived websites and contact details are likely to be out of date.
 
 
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Decision notices

When a complaint is made under the Freedom of Information Act against a public authority, the ICO investigates the facts behind the complaint and may then issue a decision notice. This is the Commissioner’s view on whether or not the public authority has complied with the Freedom of Information Act or the Environmental Information Regulations and can include legally binding steps for the public authority to follow.

When a decision notice is issued, the ICO informs both parties of their right to appeal to the First-tier Tribunal (Information Rights). Follow this link to access the First-tier Tribunal (Information Rights) website.

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Get all our decision notices in an RSS feed.

All decision notices are easily and quickly referenced using the dedicated search engine below. Alternatively, you can view decision notices by month using the left-hand menu.

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Search results

How to find a decision notice

All decision notices are quickly and easily referenced using the dedicated search engine above. You can use it to find a decision notice based on the information you know. You can search using any combination of criteria, but the more criteria you use, the more specific and relevant the results will be. The following key defines the terms we use to identify criteria.

Case reference number – this relates to the ICO's own case management system.
Date – this relates to the month and year in which the decision was made.
Authority – this identifies the public authority about whom the complaint was made.
Section – this identifies the section or regulation on which we have made a decision, eg FOI 10 refers to section 10 of the Freedom of Information Act.
Status – this identifies whether, in relation to a specific exemption, the Commissioner has:

  • Upheld the complaint;
  • Not upheld the complaint; or
  • Partially upheld the complaint. For example, the Commissioner may decide that an exemption only partly applies to an information request, in which case some information may be released, whilst some withheld. In such a case, the application of the exemption would be said to be partially upheld by the Commissioner.