Third party rights under FOIA case ruling issued after 4 years

A blog article by Jon Baines considers a recent High Court ruling in a protracted Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) case involving the Legal Services Agency (LSA) of Northern Ireland, which was finally resolved four years after the original request was made. The request concerned the grant of legal aid to Raymond McCord, a self-styled peace campaigner, initiated by a unionist MP. Under FOIA, the two primary parties—the requester and the public authority—have defined rights, but the case also highlighted the ambiguous status of third parties, like McCord, who have no express rights under the act.

Despite the Cabinet Office's best practice recommendations to consult affected third parties, which were followed in this instance, Baines writes that such consultations cannot obligate the public authority to alter its decision. After McCord raised judicial review proceedings to contest the LSA's planned disclosure, the LSA postponed the release of information pending guidance from the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO). The ICO's 2020 opinion suggested that disclosure would likely be unfair and unlawful, but it was not legally binding.

The court's eventual decision ruled that the information should be disclosed, holding that "the applicant cannot complain of any breach of privacy in respect of his pursuit of high‑profile public interest litigation in circumstances where he himself has commented publicly on the issues".

Baines concludes that the judgement is unsatisfactory and underscores the limitations and uncertainties third parties face when their information is subject to public disclosure under FOIA.