Freedom of Information Act 2000: Section 36 Consultation

From a Local Government Associsation alert:

"Section 36(2)(b) of the Freedom of Information Act relates to information which is
exempt if, in the reasonable opinion of a “qualified person”, disclosure under the
Act would, or would be likely to, inhibit the free and frank provision of advice, or the free and frank exchange of views for the purposes of deliberation.
For Welsh public authorities, under Section 36(5)(h), the qualified person is the
authority or an officer of the authority, if authorised by the NAW. This applies to all Welsh public authorities except the police and the excluded authorities who fall
within s36

DCA is now seeking views on who the qualified person should be for English public
authorities not falling within the scope of Section 36(5)(a) to (n). Following
discussion with Advisers the overwhelming view was that the “qualified person”
would most appropriately be the Monitoring Officer. We shall be advising DCA of
this very shortly."

You can find a definition of a Monitoring Officer in the 1989 Local Government and Housing Act