Public authorities often face problems knowing whether to use the absolute exemption under section 23 or 24 of FOIA. It means that if a public authority refuses a request under section 24 only, but in other cases under section 23 only, there is scope for inferences about whether security bodies were involved or not. The solution from a public authority’s perspective is to refuse the request using sections 23 and 24. However, from the requesters perspective, section 17 requires the public authority to ‘specify the exemption’. The resolution in FCDO v IC, Williams and Others [2021] UKUT 248 (AAC) rules that public authorities can lawfully run sections 23 and 24 together.
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