The Information Commissioner has ordered a government department to look again at its response to a Freedom of Information request about the use of racist language.

In January last year, the Department of Environment, Food and Agriculture received an FoI request for emails sent to and/or received from Ramsey Town Commissioners making reference to the use of racist language.

DEFA sought to clarify whether the request related to a specific group of individuals, teams or directorates, or to a particular event or meeting.

The applicant narrowed down their request to a one-month period in November 2023.

But the department replied that it did not hold or could not find, after taking reasonable steps to do so, the requested information.

The applicant then requested a review of the response, but DEFA refused, claiming the criteria to qualify for one had not been met.

The Information Commissioner’s Office has now upheld the applicant’s complaint.

It found that DEFA did not carry out a reasonable search for the requested information and was not justified in refusing an internal review.

The Commissioner has ordered the department to reprocess the request and either disclose the information requested or provide a further refusal notice that must include a clear rationale for the decision.

DEFA is also required to provide evidence of procedure and training documents.

It has 30 days from the date of the decision notice to do so.

Information Commissioner Alexandra Delaney-Bhattacharya acknowledged that searching the entirety of a public body’s email records may be unreasonable.

But she added: ‘The request was for information in email form, in a one-month period, with a specific body, relating to a specific subject.

‘There are a small number of staff at Ramsey Town Commissioners. Approximately 17 email addresses would be within the scope of this search. This number is not unreasonable as an initial search.’