Information can sometimes be destroyed after being requested under FOI (UK) | OUT-LAW.COM

Public authorities can destroy information after a Freedom of Information request for it has been made, the privacy regulator has said.

The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) said, though, that authorities can only destroy the information if the material was already scheduled for destruction before the deadline for fulfilling that request.

The ICO has published guidelines for authorities on how they should treat requests for information. Under Freedom of Information (FOI) law, the public have a right to access information held by public authorities.

The ICO has confirmed that authorities cannot habitually destroy information after a request has been received then write to the requester saying that they no longer have the information. That, it said, would be an offence.

"It will … be a criminal offence to conceal or destroy information if this is done with the intention of preventing disclosure," said the ICO guidance. "If information is held when a FOIA [Freedom of Information Act] request is received, destroying it outside of your normal records management policies will result in a breach of the Act."

The regulator did say, though, that authorities are allowed to delete information that is the subject of a request, as long as that information was scheduled to be deleted before the deadline for responding to the request.

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See: The guidance (4-page / 55KB PDF)

 
 

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