138 ANNUAL REPORT 2015 to 2014. The information was included both in the specific disciplinary cases involving the individual employees and in a general case in which a list of disciplinary cases with summaries of the cases was kept for management information purposes. The Department of the Prison and Probation Service granted the journalist access to some of the information in the cases, but denied him access to other information with reference to the provision in section 21(2) of the Access to Public Administration Files Act, according to which there is no right of access to information in cases concerning individual persons’ employment within the public sector. The journalist complained to the Ombudsman. The Ombudsman agreed with the Department that the specific disciplinary cases were cases concerning individual persons’ employment within the public sector and were therefore as a general rule not covered by the right of access. The Ombudsman stated that – in the light of the explanatory notes to the provision in section 21(2) of the Access to Public Administration Files Act – it must be presumed that there were relatively wide powers also to exempt the information in the general case in accordance with the provision in section 33(v) of the Act. However, it was important to note that in such instances, where information in specific cases concerning individual persons’ employment within the public sector was also included in a general case, a specific assessment was to be made of whether there were such public or private interests as to necessitate secrecy because of the special nature of the matter. As the Department’s processing of the case left the impression that such an assessment had not been made in relation to the general case in which the list of disciplinary cases was kept, and as some of the information contained in the summaries might in part be publicly available, the Ombudsman recommended that the Department reopen the case in order to make a specific assessment of whether the journalist should be granted further access to information in the summaries. The Department subsequently reopened the case and granted the journalist access to further information.