Part II
- (b) endanger the safety of any individual.
(2) The duty to confirm or deny does not arise if, or to the extent that, compliance with section 1(1)(a) would, or would be likely to, have either of the effects mentioned in subsection (1).
Environmental information. 39.—(1) Information is exempt information if the public authority holding it—
- (a) is obliged by regulations under section 74 to make the information available to the public in accordance with the regulations, or
- (b) would be so obliged but for any exemption contained in the regulations.
(2) The duty to confirm or deny does not arise in relation to information which is (or if it were held by the public authority would be) exempt information by virtue of subsection (1).
(3) Subsection (1)(a) does not limit the generality of section 21(1).
Personal information. 40.—(1) Any information to which a request for information relates is exempt information if it constitutes personal data of which the applicant is the data subject.
(2) Any information to which a request for information relates is also exempt information if—
- (a) it constitutes personal data which do not fall within subsection (1), and
- (b) either the first or the second condition below is satisfied.
(3) The first condition is—
- (a) in a case where the information falls within any of paragraphs (a) to (d) of the definition of “data” in section 1(1) of the 1998 c. 29.Data Protection Act 1998, that the disclosure of the information to a member of the public otherwise than under this Act would contravene—
- (i) any of the data protection principles, or
- (ii) section 10 of that Act (right to prevent processing likely to cause damage or distress), and
- (b) in any other case, that the disclosure of the information to a member of the public otherwise than under this Act would contravene any of the data protection principles if the exemptions in section 33A(1) of the Data Protection Act 1998 (which relate to manual data held by public authorities) were disregarded.
(4) The second condition is that by virtue of any provision of Part IV of the Data Protection Act 1998 the information is exempt from section 7(1)(c) of that Act (data subject’s right of access to personal data).
(5) The duty to confirm or deny—
- (a) does not arise in relation to information which is (or if it were held by the public authority would be) exempt information by virtue of subsection (1), and
- (b) does not arise in relation to other information if or to the extent that either—
