Information Commissioner's Office

Local Government Ombudsman

22 May 2007, Central government

The complainant made a request to the Local Government Ombudsman for information related to its investigation of a complaint he had previously made against Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council. The public authority refused to disclose the information under section 44 of the Act which provides an exemption from the right to know where disclosure is prohibited under any other enactment. It explained that the relevant statutory prohibition is section 32(2) of the Local Government Act 1974. On reviewing the complaint the Commissioner has found that the majority of the information is exempt from disclosure although the Commissioner has found that some of the information should have been disclosed to the complainant. The Commissioner has also found that some of the information requested by the complainant is environmental information and that therefore the public authority should have also considered the request under the Environmental Information Regulations 2004. However, the Information Commissioner has found that any environmental information held by the public authority would fall within the exception in regulation 12(5)(d) of the Environmental Information Regulations and that the public interest in maintaining this exception outweighs the public interest in disclosing the environmental information.

EIR 14: Upheld