112 annual report 2012 2012-21. Information on the occurrence of bacteria considered to be environmental information A man complained to the Ombudsman because the SSI (the State Serum Institute – a public enterprise under the Ministry of Health) had refused him access to information from an investigation of the occurrence of the staphylococcus bacterium MRSA in a number of participants in a conference. The then Ministry of the Interior and Health had upheld the decision. The Ombudsman stated that in his opinion all the information obtained from the SSI’s investigation was covered by the Environmental Information Act. The request for access to information should therefore have been decided pursuant to this Act. The Ombudsman agreed with the authorities that information about test results for the individual participants in the investigation, with names, addresses etc., could be exempted from access according to section 12(1)(i) of the Act on Public Access to Documents on Public Files, cf. section 2(3) of the Environmental Information Act. However, the Ombudsman did not find that all the other information could be exempted pursuant to section 13(1)(v) of the Act on Public Access to Documents on Public Files, cf. section 2(3) of the Environmental Information Act, on the grounds that this information was produced on the basis of a contract that had been entered into as part of the SSI’s commercial activities. For some of the information, the Ombudsman did not find that there was sufficiently detailed information and sufficient circumstantial evidence that the SSI would suffer appreciable damage by allowing access to it. On this basis the Ombudsman recommended that the SSI reopen the case and make a new decision.