Chapters: 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | annex A
4.1 Information falling within section 21 is by its nature unlikely to fall within any of the other exemptions in the Act; section 21 is concerned with different routes of access to information and not with substantive grounds for withholding information. Moreover, if the information is exempt under:
then there is little conceivable scope for overlap with other exemptions.
There is, however, some potential for overlap between section 21 and section 40(1), both of which could have the effect of diverting a 'subject access' request for personal data to the subject access regime provided by the Data Protection Act 1998; in such circumstances, section 40 is the more targeted provision, and should always be cited. Similar considerations apply in respect of section 39 and the Environmental Information Regulations, and section 32 in relation to information access to which is subject to judicial control.