Names of Don Foster MP's staff

Request

I would like to do an FOI request on the staff working for Don Foster MP.  Are [three named individuals] employed within the office of Don Foster MP?

Your website is not forthcoming and as a constituent of Mr Foster I want to know who he was working for him in a Parliamentary capacity.


Response

The names of MPs’ staff are personal data, under the terms of the Data Protection Act.

Section 40(2) provides that personal information about third parties is exempt information if one of the conditions set out in section 40(3) is satisfied. Under the FOI Act disclosure of this information would breach the fair processing principle (Principle 1) of the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA), where it would be unfair to those persons or is confidential. For further information, you may wish to visit the UK Legislation website.

As such, under section 40(5)(b)(i), we are unable to confirm or deny whether or not this information is held.

Ref:
F1415-077
Disclosure:
12 November 2014
Categories:
MPs' STAFFING
Exemptions Applied:
Section 40