FOI release

FOI request: contact with the tobacco industry at the GCA

Published 28 March 2023

7th Floor, The Cabot
25 Cabot Square
London E14 4QZ
Telephone: +44 (0) 207 215 6537
Email: Enquiries@GroceriesCode.gov.uk
www.gov.uk/gca

Sent by email 17 March 2023

Dear

Freedom of Information Act: Request for information on Groceries Code Adjudicator activities

Thank you for your email dated 20 February 2023 regarding contact with the tobacco industry at the Groceries Code Adjudicator (GCA). In your email you asked for the following information:

Please provide a list of any and all contact your organisation and/or staff have had with British American Tobacco, Imperial Brands, Japan Tobacco International, Philip Morris International, as well as any other domestic or transnational tobacco companies or anyone representing the tobacco industry including subsidiaries of tobacco industry for the period 1 April 2021 to 20 February 2023.

Contact would primarily include attending or arranging meetings or functions and responding to correspondence or phone calls.

Please break down the information by:

• Tobacco company or representative’s name
• Date of contact(s)
• Type of contact (meeting, email, letter, phone call, text/app message or video call, e-card or any other form of electronic communication)
• Place of contact, if relevant
• Purpose of contact
• Outcome of contact, including if no action taken

Duty to confirm or deny whether the GCA holds the information

Under section 1(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (“the FOI Act”), anyone making a request for information to the GCA, as a public authority, is entitled to be informed in writing whether it holds that information, and if so, to be supplied with it. Section 44(1)(a) of the FOI Act provides that information is exempt if disclosure by the public authority holding it is prohibited by or under any enactment.

Section 18(2) of the Groceries Code Adjudicator Act 2013 (“the GCA Act”) prevents the GCA from making an unauthorised disclosure of information that the Adjudicator thinks might cause someone to think that a particular person has complained about a large retailer failing to comply with the Groceries Code. The GCA thinks that releasing the information that you have requested might cause someone to think a particular person has complained about a large retailer failing to comply with the Groceries Code. None of the exemptions set out in section 18 of the GCA Act apply.

As disclosure of the information you have requested is prohibited by section 18(2) of the GCA Act 2013, section 44(1)(a) of the FOI Act applies in this case and the information requested is exempt from disclosure. This is an absolute exemption and there is, therefore, no requirement to consider the public interest.

Appeals Procedure

If you wish to complain about the way in which your request for information has been handled, you may seek an internal review by writing, setting out the reasons you feel your request has not been dealt with effectively, to:

The FOI Review Co-ordinator
Groceries Code Adjudicator
7th Floor
25 Cabot Square
London E14 4QZ

Alternatively you can email: enquiries@groceriescode.gov.uk

We will aim to deal with your Internal Review request within 20 working days of receipt or, if that is not possible, advise you of a date when we expect to complete the review. If you are dissatisfied with the outcome of the Internal Review you then have the right to appeal to the Information Commissioners Office. The contact address is:

Information Commissioners Office
FOI/EIR Complaints Resolution
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire SK9 5AF

Yours sincerely,