Exempt Information

Members of the public may not be entitled to access to information which is 'Exempt' from release to the public under the FoIA. Details relating to Exempt Information appear in Part II of the Act, commencing with Section 21.

In total there are 25 classes of Exempt Information - 17 of which may be treated as Exempt, subject to the application of the Public Interest Test (see below) and 8 of which are Absolute Exemptions. Absolute Exemption means the Council does not have to comply with the duty to provide the information, although at first this may appear misleading as it also applies to information which is reasonably accessible by other means including access to information via the Council Website, publications etc.

Absolute Exemptions relate to:

S.21 Reasonably accessible (by other means)
S.23 Security matters
S.32 Court Records
S.34 Parliamentary Privilege
S.36 Effective Conduct of Public Affairs
S.40 Data Protection Act 1998
S.41 Information Provided in Confidence
S.44 Prohibition on Disclosure

The Public Interest Test may be applied to the 17 other categories of Exempt information. It means that Exempt information may be released if the public interest in disclosure outweighs the public interest in not disclosing the information.

The Public Interest Test Exemptions may be applied to:

S.22 Information Intended for future publication
S.24 National Security
S.26 Defence
S.27 International Relations
S.28 Relations within the UK
S.29 The Economy
S.30 Investigation & proceedings conducted by Public Authorities
S.31 Law Enforcement
S.33 Audit Functions
S.35 Formulation of Government Policy
S.36 Prejudice to Effective Conduction of Public Affairs
S.37 Communication with Her Majesty
S.38 Health & Safety
S.39 Environmental Information
S.40 Personal Information
S.42 Legal Professional Privilege
S.43 Commercial Interests

Last Modified: 21/09/2005 16:23:05
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