A Record Withheld in Full Explained
Where the organisation withholds a record in full under an exemption, the response states why no part of it could be disclosed.
Intent
A record withheld in full is the largest thing an exemption can do. Saying why no part of it survived redaction is what shows the exemption was applied to the material rather than the document.
How to test it
An assessor scores the criterion against a single response:
- Score 2
- The response says why no part of the withheld record could be disclosed.
- Score 1
- The response names the exemption for the record without saying why none of it could be released.
- Score 0
- A record was withheld in full and the response does not say why.
- Not applicable
- The organisation withheld no record in full.
The law it reflects
This criterion reflects Article 5(2) of the UK GDPR. That mapping is a guide, not a legal test: conformance is judged against the criterion, not the article.
See H6 in context in the full standard.