Chapters: 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | annex A
4.1 The Protective Marking system has been developed to protect sensitive information in government. It is defined in the Cabinet Office Manual of Protective Security. A Protective Marking may be an indicator that an exemption should be at least be considered, but it is not definitive. Conversely, although information that needs to be safeguarded for reasons of effective governance would normally be expected to bear a protective marking, this may not always be the case.
4.2 The protective marking may relate to one or more of a range of matters, including national security, defence, law enforcement, individual safety or international relations.
4.3 There are four main classifications, sometimes augmented by additional caveats and/or handling instructions. They are RESTRICTED; CONFIDENTIAL; SECRET; and TOP SECRET. The principle is that information is marked according to the harm that would accrue from its unauthorised disclosure and it is then protected by appropriate countermeasures accordingly.
4.4 It should be noted that the Act does not itself refer to the protective marking scheme. This is not an omission but a deliberate aspect of the Act which means that a protective marking does not, in itself, mean the information cannot be disclosed. Instead, it is essential to consider the information in the context of the exemptions within the Act and to assess whether, on that basis, it should or should not be disclosed.
4.5 When dealing with a request for information in a document that has a protective marking, it is always important to consider that the protective marking may no longer be current, and, while the protective marking reflects the highest classification of the information contained in a document, only a small part of the content might warrant that classification. Wherever possible, reference should be made to the originator of the document in order to determine fully and accurately the present sensitivity of the information requested.