(a) Commission policy. It is the policy of the Commission to make the records of the Commission available to the public to the greatest extent possible, in keeping with the spirit of the Freedom of Information Act.

(b) Statutory disclosure requirement. The Freedom of Information Act requires that the Commission, on a request from a member of the public to inspect or copy records made in accordance with the procedures in this subpart, shall promptly make the records available.

(c) Statutory exemptions. The Act exempts nine categories of records from this disclosure requirement. The Act provides that disclosure is not required of matters that are:

(1) Specifically authorized under criteria established by an Executive order to be kept secret in the interest of national defense or foreign policy and in fact properly classified pursuant to such Executive Order;

(2) Related solely to the internal personnel rules and practices of an agency;

(3) Specifically exempt from disclosure by statute;

(4) Trade secrets and commercial or financial information obtained from a person and privileged or confidential;

(5) Inter-agency or intra-agency memorandums or letters which would not be available by law to a party other than an agency in litigation with the agency;

(6) Personnel and medical files and similar files the disclosure of which would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy;

(7) Investigatory records compiled for law enforcement purposes, but only to the extent that production of such records would

(i) Interfere with enforcement proceedings;

(ii) Deprive a person of a right to a fair trial or an impartial adjudication,

(iii) Constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy,

(iv) Disclose the indentity of a confidential source and, in the case of a record compiled by a criminal law enforcement authority in the course of a criminal investigation, or by an agency conducting a lawful national security intelligence investigation, confidential information furnished only by the confidential source,

(v) Disclose investigative techniques and procedures, or

(vi) Endanger the life or physical safety of law enforcement personnel;

(8) Contained in or related to examination, operating, or condition reports prepared by, on behalf of, or for the use of an agency responsible for the regulation or supervision of financial institutions; or

(9) Geological and geophysical information and data, including maps, concerning wells.

(d) Decisions on requests. It is the policy of the Commission to withhold information falling within an exemption only if (1) disclosure is prohibited by statute or Executive Order or (2) sound grounds exist for invocation of the exemption.

(e) Deletion of portions of records. If a requested record contains material within an exemption together with material not within an exemption and it is determined under the regulations in this subpart to withhold the exempt material, any reasonably segregable nonexempt material shall be separated from the exempt material.

(f) Creation of records. This subpart applies only to records which exist at the time a request for records is made. Records are not required to be created in response to a request by combining or compiling selected items from the files or by preparing a new computer program, nor are records required to be created to provide the requester with such data as proportions, percentages, frequency distributions, trends, or comparisons.

(g) Records of concern to other departments and agencies. (1) If the release of a record would be of concern to both the Commission and another Federal agency, the record will be made available by the Commission only if the interest of the Commission is the primary interest. If the Commission's interest is not the primary interest, the requester shall be referred in writing to the agency having the primary interest. The Commission has the primary interest in a record if the record was developed pursuant to Commission regulations, directives, or request even though the record originated outside of the Commission.

(2) If the release of a record in which the Commission has a primary interest would be of substantial concern to another agency, the official processing the request, should, if administratively feasible and appropriate, consult with that agency before releasing the record.

(h) Records obtained from the public. If a requested record was obtained by the Commission from a person or entity outside of the Government, the official responsible for processing the request shall, when it is administratively feasible to do so, seek the views of that person or entity on whether the record should be released before making a decision on the request.