Recurrent: Ministry of the Interior

Recurred resolution: R/0751/2024

In exercise of the right of access to public information, a request was submitted to the Ministry of the Interior for access to the complete copy of a disciplinary file instructed to the person concerned for a very serious misdemeanour, and finalized by a resolution agreeing to its cessation in the destination it occupied.

The requested Ministry did not respond within the legally established time limit so that the request was deemed rejected by silence and expedites the way of the claim provided for in article 24 LTAIBG.

Subsequently, in the phase of allegations before this Council, it reveals that the request for access was answered by denying access, with respect to the granting of the copy of the reserved information, in application of the limit provided in article 14.1.e) LTAIBG, relating to the prevention, investigation and punishment of criminal, administrative or disciplinary offences.

Once the complaint has been filed, the Council considers it partially (with regard to the reserved information), taking into account that the denial of access to this information on the basis of this limit is not appropriate insofar as the file submitted to the interested party has been finalized by resolution. The temporal element, if the actions in question are being acted on or developed, is decisive in the concretion of the legal good that is protected with the application of the limit and the consequent restriction of access to information, without it being possible to make an extensive interpretation of it.