Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what instructions have been given to staff in her Department dealing with freedom of information requests on the application of Freedom of Information Act Awareness Guidance No. 19, issued by the Information Commissioner's Office, in considering whether to apply the exemptions in section 38 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

No such instructions have been issued. Officials handling freedom of information requests are advised to consult the guidance issued by the Information Commissioner’s Office whenever the use of an application is being considered.

The Ministry of Justice publishes annual statistical reports on the handling of requests for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 for central government. These reports include statistics on the number of times each exemption was used by each government department to withhold information. These reports can be accessed on the following webpage: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/government-foi-statistics.