Information Commissioner's Office

Hertfordshire County Council

28 January 2008, Local government (County council)

The complainant requested a transcript of a reconvened inquest into the death of his son. The public authority told him that the official tapes of the inquest had not been transcribed but offered copies of the tapes to him. It agreed to waive the fee of £41 that would have applied. The complainant was unhappy with this outcome and complained to the Commissioner. Following an investigation, the Commissioner has determined that the tapes are held by the public authority solely on behalf of the Hertfordshire Coroner and not for its own purposes. Coroners are not designated as public authorities under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and therefore their records are not subject to the information access regime of this Act. There is a separate information access regime for such records over which the Commissioner has no jurisdiction. However, the Commissioner has found that the public authority did not comply with its obligations under Section 1(1) of the Act because it did not formally deny that it held the information for its own purposes. Information Tribunal appeal number (EA/2008/0010) has been dismissed.

FOI 1: Upheld