Line to take - LTT19 - Applicability of section 30(1)

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  • FOI/EIR: FOI
  • Section/Regulation: s30
  • Issue: Applicability of section 30(1)
  • Source: Information Tribunal
  • Details: Toms / Royal Mail (19 June 2006)
  • Related Lines to Take: LTT20, LTT30, LTT67, LTT100
  • Related Documents: FS50072311, EA/2005/0027, Awareness Guidance 16
  • Contact: AB
  • Date: 12/10/2006
  • Policy Reference: LTT19
  • © Copyright Information Commissioner's Office, re-used with permission
  • Original source linked from here: LTT


Line to take

In order for the exemption in s30(1) to be applicable the information must be held for a specific or particular investigation, not for investigations in general and it continues to be applicable even after an investigation has been completed.

Further Information

In the case of Toms v The Information Commissioner, the IT stated that:

“...for the exemption to apply, the information in question must be held for the purpose of any investigation which the public authority has a duty to conduct, that is, a specific or particular investigation with which the public authority is concerned. The exemption would not appear to relate to, for example, the manner in which, or the procedure according to which, investigations in general are, or should be, conducted by a public authority...” (para 6)

IT went on to say that:

“...it appears from the wording of section 30(1) that if this information is subject to the exemption, it will remain so even if the particular purpose or purposes for which the information was retained for is or are no longer material, justified or required, such as would be the case, for example, with an investigation which had resulted either in a decision not to prosecute or in a prosecution which had been completed.” (para 6)

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