Phrase to prevent disclosure in a FOI request

Masala

Just wondering - can a correspondent request that his correspondence to a Govt Dept not be disclosed to a 3rd party in a FOI request at a later date???

What 'phrase' would you use in your letter/email to 'block' any use of the latter/email from being disclosed under a FOI.

just wondering......

endofrainbow

would that not be defeating the purpose of FOI ?

Samuel T. Cogley

NM Misread what the OP was asking for.

sabrewolfe

Depends on the scope of the FOI that the 3rd party is asking for and the information you are providing to the department.

You could put in something like "The below information is being provided in confidence and as such should be considered exempt from a Freedom of Information request pursuant to Section 42(1)(I)&(II) of the Freedom of information Act 2014".

But realistically its up to the FOI decision maker if they consider the information you have provided to be in the public interest.

Victor

Is the information commercially sensitive?

Does it include personal information?

There are a series of reasons to not disclose information, you need to find that list and find one.

Peregrinus

There's no magic phrase you can put in a document to prevent disclosure in an FOI request.

There are various reasons why disclosure might be refused, but none of them are along the lines of "disclosure may be refused if the document contains [x phrase]".

You can certainly put in words like "this document contains information, the disclosure of which would prejudice or impair the prevention, detection or investigation of offences" (this being one of the grounds on which disclosure can be refused). But the important question is not whether the document claims to contain information of that kind, but whether it actually does. If it doesn't, then including a claim that it does is useless; if it does, then it shouldn't be necessary to include the phrase; disclosure will be refused anyway.