Legal advice given to the Standards and Privileges Committee

Information Standards Freedom of Information Response

Our Ref: FOI 50-21

25 November 2021

 

 

Freedom of Information Act 2000 (“FoIA”)

I am writing to confirm that the Northern Ireland Assembly Commission (Assembly Commission) has processed your request dated 8 November 2021 in line with the Freedom of Information Act 2000. In your request, you asked:

“This is a request for the Legal advice given to the Standards and Privileges Committee by Head of Legal Services Office which was recorded for Hansard. Complaint against a member oral hearing from the member.

Also, there was a draft committee report produced. Can I have a copy of the report? I cannot pinpoint the date except it would have been quite recently but any time from May/June to present. There was also Legal advice given by a member of the Legal Services tea to the Standards and Privileges Committee in a closed session on the 26th May 2021, which was recorded for Hansard and a submission given by the Commissioner for Standards at the same closed session. Can I access the information through a FOI request?”

The Assembly Commission holds the requested information for the purposes of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FoIA).

The information is exempt from the requirement to disclose under the FoIA under section 22 of the FoIA and section 42 of the FoIA for the reasons set out in the attached notice below.

 

Legal advice - Section 42 FoIA

Further to your request for legal advice, section 42 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 states: -

Information in respect of which a claim to legal professional privilege… could be maintained in legal proceedings is exempt information.     

Certain of the information, which has been identified as relevant to your request, is covered by legal professional privilege. 

 

Public Interest Test

As this exemption is a qualified exemption and is subject to the public interest test provided for in section 2(2)(b) of the Freedom of Information Act, the Assembly Commission has considered whether the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.

Therefore, the information must be disclosed unless, in all the circumstances of the case, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.

The Assembly Commission is satisfied that the public interest in disclosure of the requested information is outweighed by the public interest in maintaining the exemption.

Draft Report – Section 22 FoIA

Further to your request for a copy of the draft report that was provided to the Committee, I wish to advise you this information is exempt from the requirement to disclose under section 22 of the FoIA and cannot be disclosed for the reasons set out below.

 

Section 22 of the FoIA states:

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).

The Commissioner for Standards (‘the Commissioner’), Dr Melissa McCullough, considers all complaints against MLAs alleging breaches of the Assembly Members’ Code of Conduct (‘the Code’). The Commissioner investigates all admissible complaints and provides the Committee on Standards and Privileges (‘the Committee’) with her investigation reports. 

Under section 27(3) of the Assembly Members (Independent Financial Review and Standards) Act (Northern Ireland) 2011, the Assembly is required to publish all investigation reports by the Commissioner. All such reports are published on the Assembly website once the Committee has concluded its adjudication and reported to the Assembly on each case. The Commissioner’s investigation report is published as an appendix to the Committee’s report.

The Committee’s reports on complaint cases in the current mandate are available here.

Future reports will be listed on the Assembly website once the Committee has concluded its adjudication and reported to the Assembly on each case.

The submission from the Commissioner on 26 May 2021 will be published as part of the applicable Committee report once the report has been agreed by the Committee.

The Assembly Commission is satisfied that the exemption in section 22 FoIA is engaged in this instance.

 

Public Interest Test

As this exemption is a qualified exemption and is subject to the public interest test provided for in section 2(2)(b) of the Freedom of Information Act, the Assembly Commission has considered whether the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.

Therefore, the information must be disclosed unless, in all the circumstances of the case, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.

The Assembly Commission is satisfied that the public interest in disclosure of the requested information is outweighed by the public interest in maintaining the exemption.

It would not be in the public interest to release information on complaints until they are adjudicated on by the Committee. Therefore, the exemption under Section 22 of the FoIA in relation to “information intended for future publication” has been applied.

You have the right to request a formal review by the Assembly Commission and if you wish to do so, please write to me at the above address.

If after such an internal review you are still unhappy with the response, you have the right to appeal to the Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF who will undertake an independent review.

The Assembly Commission may publish details of your FOI request and our official response within the organisational disclosure log. The request will be completely anonymised and you will not be identified in any way. This is to meet the requirements as laid out by in the agreed publication scheme with the Information Commissioners’ Office.

 

 

Yours sincerely

INFORMATION STANDARDS OFFICE

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