Allowing an appeal against a decision of the Information Commissioner, the Information Tribunal has ruled that The National Archives (TNA) wrongly refused to continue to disclose information from its online records relating to Princess Margaret under section 12 or 14 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. It held that section 12, which provides an exemption from disclosure where the cost of compliance exceeds the appropriate limit, had to be considered with section 16, which concerns the advice and assistance that a public authority is obliged to give to those who request information. Here, it would have been reasonable to expect the TNA to advise the appellant to phase his requests at intervals of more than 60 days, and to help him do so in a logical manner. TNA's failure to do so meant it could not rely on section 12 to refuse the request. The Tribunal also held that it could not rely on section 14 concerning vexatious or repeated requests.

Case: Robert Brown v Information Commissioner and The National Archives (as an additional party), 2 October 2007.