Information Commissioner's Office

Cheshire West and Chester Council

22 July 2015, Local government (County council)

The complainants requested planning information from Cheshire West and Chester Council (“the council”). The council said that the information was not held in relation to two of the requests and that one of the requests was not a valid request for information under the legislation. The Commissioner finds that the council breached regulation 14(2) of the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (“the EIR”) for failing to state that information was not held within 20 working days. He considered that the remaining request was valid and he has found that the council breached regulation 5(2) for failing to respond to it within 20 working days. The Commissioner requires the public authority to respond to request 2 under the EIR “Kindly ensure that all correspondence sent or received from those detailed below including attachments sent or received is posted onto the CWAC website [names]”. The council should make the information available to the complainants or rely on a valid exception under the EIR. If the information was not held, the council should rely on the exception under regulation 12(4)(a). If the council is not clear about the scope of the request, it should contact the complainants to clarify the request in line with its obligation to provide reasonable advice and assistance under regulation 9(1). The public authority must take these steps within 35 calendar days of the date of this decision notice. Failure to comply may result in the Commissioner making written certification of this fact to the High Court pursuant to section 54 of the Act and may be dealt with as a contempt of court

EIR 5(2): Upheld EIR 14(2): Upheld