Section 27 of the Freedom of Information Act provides that:
Information is exempt information if its disclosure would, or would
be likely to, prejudice-
(a) relations between the United Kingdom and any other state,
(b) relations between the United Kingdom and any international organisation
or international court,
(c) the interests of the United Kingdom abroad, or
(d) the promotion or protection by the United Kingdom of its interests
abroad.
Information is also exempt information if it is confidential information
obtained from a state other than the United Kingdom or from an international
organisation or international court.
For the purposes of this section, any information obtained from
a state, organisation or court is confidential at any time while the
terms on which it was obtained require it to be held in confidence
or while the circumstances in which it was obtained make it reasonable
for the state, organisation or court to expect that it will be so
held.
The duty to confirm or deny does not arise if, or to the extent
that, compliance with section 1(1)(a) -
(a) would, or would be likely to, prejudice any of the matters mentioned
in subsection (1), or
(b) would involve the disclosure of any information (whether or
not already recorded) which is confidential information obtained
from a state other than the United Kingdom or from an international
organisation or international court.
Definitions
1.1 Officials should be clear about the definition of
some of the key terms used in section 27 of the FOI Act in order to understand
what information is covered by the exemption. Some terms are defined in
section 27(5):
'international court' means any international court which
is not an international organisation and which is established -
by a resolution of an international organisation of which the
United Kingdom is a member, or
by an international agreement to which the United Kingdom is
a party.
Examples include the International Court of Justice, the European Court
of Justice, the International Criminal Court and the European Court
of Human Rights.
'international organisation' means any international organisation
whose members include any two or more states, or any organ of such
an organisation.
Note that the United Kingdom does not have to be a member of the organisation
concerned. Thus organisations such as Organisation of Petroleum Exporting
Countries and the Organisation of American states are covered, as well
e.g. the United Nations and the European Union. 'Organs' of international
organisations would include for example the European Commission and
the European Parliament.
'state' includes the government of any state and any organ
of its government, and references to a state other than the United
Kingdom include references to any territory outside the United Kingdom.
This latter will include, for example, the Crown Dependencies (Jersey,
Guernsey and the Isle of Man) and British Overseas Territories (e.g.
Gibraltar) and territorial entities not recognised as states. 'Organs'
of government will include a state's legislature and executive.
'confidential information' obtained from a state,
international court or international organisation' is defined in section
27(3). Note that this definition allows for the possibility that confidentiality
may be either expressly imposed under the terms on which it was obtained
or inferred as a matter of the reasonable expectation of the state,
organisation or court from the circumstances in which it was obtained.
Note also that, in contrast to section 41, there is no requirement that
disclosure be an actionable breach of confidence for this definition
to apply.
'United Kingdom' is defined in the Interpretation
Act as: "Great Britain and Northern Ireland."
