legal aid review report

Summary

A request was made for a legal aid review report written by the late AG John Quinn, which was refused under a qualified exemption for information intended for future publication. The authority determined that premature disclosure would compromise the Legal Aid Committee's ability to formulate fair policy without external influence.

Key Facts

• The requested document is a legal aid review report written by the late AG John Quinn.
• The report was forwarded to the Legal Aid Committee in January 2022.
• The Attorney General's Chambers refused disclosure citing Section 41 of the Freedom of Information Act 2015.
• The exemption was applied because the report is held with a view to future publication.
• The Legal Aid Committee must issue a response to the report before it is submitted to the Treasury.

Data Disclosed

• 2374877
• 2022-04-07
• 2022-07-14
• January 2022
• 9 May 2022
• section 41
• Freedom of Information Act 2015
• 3
• 1

Exemptions Cited

• Section 41 of the Freedom of Information Act 2015 (Information for future publication)

Original Request

Please supply a copy of the legal aid review report written by the late AG John Quinn and forwarded to the legal aid committee in January 2022.

Data Tables (1)

Data Tables (reformatted)

Full Response Text

XXXX

Attorney General's Chambers Belgravia House Circular Road, Douglas Isle of Man, IM1 1AE Telephone: (01624) 685452
E-mail: attgen@gov.im

Our ref: 2374877 9 May 2022

Dear XXXX,

We write further to your request which was received on 7 April 2022 and which
states:

"Please supply a copy of the legal aid review report written by the late AG
John Quinn and forwarded to the legal aid committee in January 2022." While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the
information is exempt from disclosure under a qualified exemption, section 41 of the
Freedom of Information Act 2015 ( “Information for future publication” ) , as it is held
with a view to being published at a future date, therefore we are issuing you with a
refusal notice. Whilst there is no date set for when the report will be published, it has always been
the intention to do so.
As section 41 is a qualified exemption, it is subject to a public interest test. The public
interest must be something that is of serious concern and benefit to the public at
large. In order to provide advice and assistance I can give further context to our
decision to apply this qualified exemption against disclosure of the report at this time; Factors in favour of disclosure No date set for publication of the report Transparency

Factors in favour of withholding the report was provided to the Legal Aid Committee in order to assist them in
the formulation of a future legal aid policy; the Legal Aid Committee has a statutory responsibility for making policy
decisions in this area, therefore in order for them to formulate fair policy, they
need to do this without any external influence, which disclosure of the report at
this time would compromise; the Legal Aid Committee is to issue a response to the report, pre-publication,
which will then be submitted alongside the report to the Treasury. In taking the above factors into account the Attorney General's Chambers determined that the factors in favour of maintaining the exemption outweigh the factors in favour of disclosing the information. Premature publication could compromise the formulation of the policy the Legal Aid Committee are to produce, thus affecting the public interest’s need for fair, uncompromised policy formulation. Therefore the report is to be withheld in order to allow for future publication once this policy process has been completed.

Please quote the reference number 2374877 in any future communications.

Your right to request a review

If you are unhappy with this response to your freedom of information request, you may ask us to carry out an internal review of the response, by completing a complaint form and submitting it electronically or by delivery/post.

An electronic version of our complaint form can be found by going to our website at https://services.gov.im/freedom-of-information/Review . If you would like a paper version of our complaint form to be sent to you by post, please contact me and I will be happy to arrange for this. Your review request should explain why you are dissatisfied with this response, and should be made as soon as practicable. We will respond as soon as the review has been concluded. If you are not satisfied with the result of the review, you then have the right to appeal to the Information Commissioner for a decision on; 1. Whether we have responded to your request for information in accordance with Part 2 of the Freedom of Information Act 2015; or 2. Whether we are justified in refusing to give you the information requested.
In response to an application for review, the Information Commissioner may, at any time, attempt to resolve a matter by negotiation, conciliation, mediation or another form of alternative dispute resolution and will have regard to any outcome of this in making any subsequent decision. More detailed information on your right to a review can be found on the Information Commissioner’s website at www.inforights.im. Should you have any queries concerning this letter, please do not hesitate to contact me. Further information about freedom of information requests can be found at www.gov.im/foi.

I will now close your request as of this date.

Yours sincerely

XXXX XXXX