SUMMARIES OF SELECTED STATEMENTS O. PRIME MINISTER’S OFFICE The following statement on a case concluded in 2014 has been published: 2014-28. ACCESS TO PERSONNEL CASE INFORMATION IN NON-PERSONNEL CASE. INCREASED ACCESS TO FILES A journalist complained to the Ombudsman because the Prime Minister’s Office had, with reference to section 33(v) of the Access to Public Administration Files Act, refused to give access to information which was part of a nonpersonnel case at the Ministry. The information also figured in two personnel cases with the Agency for Modernisation. The Prime Minister’s Office referred to the fact that the information in question concerned personnel cases outside the Prime Minister’s Office and to the regards underlying section 2(2) of the Access to Public Administration Files Act on the exemption of personnel cases from access to files. Based on the Act’s explanatory notes, the Ombudsman found that in cases like this there was generally a fairly broad-ranging authority to exempt such information pursuant to section 33(v) of the Act. At the same time, the Ombudsman maintained that also in cases such as this the use of this provision required a concrete assessment. As the decision and the statement to the Ombudsman by the Prime Minister’s Office did not leave the impression that a concrete assessment had actually been made, the Ombudsman could not on the present basis accept the use by the Prime Minister’s Office of the provision. The Ombudsman therefore asked the Prime Minister’s Office to reopen the case and make a new decision. The journalist also complained because the Prime Minister’s Office had delimited the case so that it only concerned a request for access to those documents, etc. which were specifically mentioned in the request. The Ombudsman could not criticise that the Prime Minister’s Office had delimited the case. But as the journalist had specifically asked for documents up to the time of the decision, it was, however, the Ombudsman’s opinion that the Prime Minister’s Office should have considered whether, based on the principle of increased access to files, full or partial access could be given to those documents which had been received by or created by the Prime Minister’s Office in the period of time between the request and the decision. At any rate, the Prime 139