Information Commissioner's Office

Oxford City Council

29 November 2005, Local government (City council)

The complainant requested information about all OCC vehicles currently registered with DVLA and those that had been sold including vehicle identification numbers (VINs), vehicle registration marks (VRMs), fleet numbers, make and model types and type of body. The OCC withheld all the information requested relying on section 31 of the Act. Section 31 exempts from disclosure that information which would be likely to prejudice the prevention or detection of crime. The Commissioner decided that OCC had applied section 31 correctly in relation to the information concerning VINs as disclosure to the public would be likely to increase the risk of the information being used for vehicle cloning and therefore would not be in the public interest. However, the Commissioner disagrees with the application of section 31 with regard to the other information requested and therefore requires that this is provided to the complainant. In addition the Commissioner decided that OCC had not complied with the requirements of section 17 of the Act in relation to the refusal notice it had issued because no consideration of the public interest was included. The Commissioner decided that OCC had not complied with the requirements of section 16 of the Act, the duty to provide advice and assistance, in relation to the modified request. Both the complainant and the Council have now lodged an appeal.

FOI 31: Partly upheld FOI 17: Upheld