7 August 2007, Local government (Parish council)
The complainant alleged that Great Sankey Parish Council (the “Council”) withheld certain items of information when responding to his request for information about its 2004/2005 end-of-year audit. The Information Commissioner considered that the request fell within the scope of section 15(1) of the Audit Commission Act 1998 (the “ACA”), which provides specific rights of access to end-of-year account information in the period prior to its annual audit. The Commissioner decided that at the time of the request the information was reasonably accessible to the complainant otherwise than under section 1 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the “Act”). The Commissioner therefore considered that the information was exempt from disclosure under the Act by virtue of section 21.
FOI 21: Not upheld