Essex County Council (Local government) [2019] UKICO fs50750409 (13 February 2019)
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Essex County Council
The complainant on two occasions has requested from Essex County Council information relating to correspondence between a group of individuals and the Council regarding a planning application. The Council provided some redacted information citing section 40(2) of the FOIA and stated that it did not hold the remainder of the information requested. The Commissioner’s view was that the requested information was environmental and hence it was appropriate to consider the request under the EIR. The Commissioner’s decision is that the Council was correct to redact personal data in the documents that it shared with the complainant, hence regulation 13(1) (personal data) was correctly applied to those redactions. It is also the Commissioner’s view that, on the balance of probabilities, the Council does not hold any further information falling within the scope of the request. However, the Commissioner finds that the Council applied regulation 13(1) incorrectly when it decided to withhold an entire document that was within the scope of the request. The Council is now required to disclose a copy of that document, with personal data redacted. The Commissioner requires the Council to disclose a redacted copy, with the personal details withheld, of the letter of 10 January 2016 sent to the Council by the owners of the affected land. The Council 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 13(1):
Complaint partly upheld
EIR 12(4)(a):
Complaint not upheld
Decision notice: fs50750409
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URL: http://www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKICO/2019/fs50750409.html
