hah! by coincidence I received this email today from the Big Lottery Fund:
We have handled your request under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (“FOIA”).
You have requested the following information:
- A copy of the funding application
- The minutes of the meeting in which the application was discussed
- copies of any email or postal communications with Mermaids regarding the grant
- copies of any internal email communication within the Big Lottery Fund (“the Fund”) regarding the grant
Unfortunately, we require further time to respond to your request. This is because we believe that information falling under the scope of your request may be commercially sensitive or may form part of a future publication.
Therefore section 22(1) and 43(2) of the FOIA is engaged.
Section 43(2) states:
s. 43 (2) Information is exempt information if its disclosure under this Act would, or would be likely to prejudice the commercial interests of any person (including the public authority holding it).
Section 22(1) states:
s.22 (1) Information is exempt information if—
(a) the information is held by the public authority with a view to its publication, by the authority or any other person, at some future date (whether determined or not),
(b) the information was already held with a view to such publication at the time when the request for information was made, and
(c) it is reasonable in all the circumstances that the information should be withheld from disclosure until the date referred to in paragraph (a).
We have therefore enacted section 10(3)(b) of the FOIA which states:
s.10 (1) Subject to subsections (2) and (3), a public authority must comply with section 1(1) promptly and in any event not later than the twentieth working day following the date of receipt. (3) If, and to the extent that (a) section 1 (1)(a) would not apply if the condition in section 2 (1)(b) were satisfied, or (b) section 1 (1)(b) would not apply if the condition in section 2(2)(b) were satisfied the public authority need not comply with section 1(1)(a) or (b) until such time as is reasonable in the circumstances; but this subsection does not affect the time by which any notice under section 17(1) must be given.
It is impractical for us to make a decision within the 20 working day period to determine if it is in the public interest to withhold this information. We are therefore extending the time to respond to your request by a further 20 working days to 14 February 2019, although we will endeavour to respond before then. I do apologise for the delay.