Electronic & Written Correspondence & Communication

Response

I would be grateful if you would treat the following correspondence as a request for disclosure of the following information, under Freedom of Information law.

Description of information sought:

1. Copies of any and all electronic and written correspondence and communication to and from external organisations and internally within the Department, especially involving any employees working on FOI requests including the Data Auditor – Freedom Of Information, relating to issuing the revised FOI response your reference “24.010692- Freedom of Information Request” during the time period 14 February – 20 May 2024.

Section 17 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 requires South Yorkshire Police, when refusing to provide such information (because the information is exempt), to provide you the applicant with a notice which:
a. states that fact,
b. specifies the exemption in question and
c. states (if that would not otherwise be apparent) why the exemption applies.

The following exemptions apply to Q1 & Q2 and the full disclosure of the information:

Section 40 (2) – Personal Information

This is an absolute exemption and therefore a Public Interest Test is not relevant.
However, for clarity records held that contain the personal information requested, if released to a third party (i.e not the person involved) without permission of the individuals concerned would be a breach of the Data Protection Act 2018.

Section 23(1) Information supplied by or concerning, certain Security Bodies;

Section 23 is a class based absolute exemption and there is no requirement to consider the public interest.

Please see attached document with the emails that fit the criteria of this question. They have been redacted as the above exemptions.
 

2. Copies of any and all electronic and written correspondence and communication to and from external organisations and internally within the Department, especially involving any employees working on FOI requests including the Data Access Analyst, relating to the following keywords “xxxx xxxx”, ““xxxx xxxx”BBC”, [email protected] during the time period 14 February – 20 May 2024.

South Yorkshire Police can neither confirm nor deny that it holds the information that you have requested as the duty in Section 1 (1)(a) of the Freedom of Information Act does not apply. If we did hold such information then it would be exempt under the following sections: -

Section 40(5) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, which covers Personal Information

Information disclosed under the Freedom of Information Act is disclosed into the public domain, effectively to the world, not just to one individual. To confirm or deny whether personal information exists in response to this question request could publicly reveal information about an individual or individuals, thereby breaching the right to privacy afforded to persons under the Data Protection Act