Several other key exemptions are likely to be relevant to the application
of section 38:
Sections 23 and 24: Information relating to emergency
planning, or counter-terrorist policies may well originate from the
security service and as such fall under this absolute exemption. If
this type of information did not originate from the security service,
it may nevertheless be exempt under section 24 if this is required
for the purpose of safeguarding national security;
Sections 30 and 31: where information relates to
an investigation or proceedings within the meaning of section 30 or
where the disclosure of the information might prejudice any of the
matters listed in section 31(1) , for example, the administration
of justice or the prevention or detection of crime.
Section 32: restrictions on the disclosure of information
contained in court records may be relevant to the protection of the
health and safety of individuals;
Section 39: environmental information within the
meaning of the Environmental Information Regulations.
Section 40: much of the information that could
lead to a person's health or safety being endangered is personal information
which would be exempt under section 40 of the FOI Act which specifies
that requests for personal information be dealt with under the terms
of the Data Protection Act. In most instances this will prevent the
disclosure of the most obvious kinds of personal information which
could result in harm to an individual's health or safety such as their
address and family details. In particular, the Data Protection (Subject
Access Modification)(Health) Order 2000 (SI 2000/413) means that,
in most circumstances, information which relates to the physical or
mental health of an individual and whose disclosure would be likely
to cause serious physical or mental harm to that or another individual
will be exempt under section 40.
