Application for a decision
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Under Part V of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, if you have requested information under the Act and are unhappy with the outcome, you can apply to the Information Commissioner for a decision as to whether the body from whom you requested the information. A similar arrangement applies under Part 4 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 with respect to the Scottish Information Commissioner.
Under Part IVA of the Employment Rights Act 1996, disclosures to the Information Commissioner and the Scottish Information Commissioner are protected by virtue of SI 1999/1549.
ICO Decision Notices
When a complaint is made against a public authority, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) investigates the facts behind the complaint and may then issue a Decision Notice. This is the Commissioner's final and formal view on whether or not the public authority has complied with the Freedom of Information Act or the Environmental Information Regulations.
The ICO will also try to resolve cases informally where possible, this helps speed up their case closure times. You can appeal their decisions to the Information Rights Tribunal (formerly known as the Information Tribunal).
A summary of all ICO Decision Notices have been uploaded to FOIwiki - data is current as at 26 April 2010 . This is to help you find out how the ICO have applied their interpretation to the various exemptions in the Freedom of Information Act 2000 or Environmental Information Regulations 2004. The data can be seen either on the relevant exemption pages, or can be browsed here.
