Information Commissioner's Office

Summary: The complainant requested information regarding the sale and development of land in the immediate vicinity of the British Library. The public authority initially released a small portion of the information, citing various exemptions to withhold the balance of the information held falling within the scope of the request. Following intervention by the Commissioner the public authority released most of the remaining information it held falling within the scope of the request but withheld some of the information relying on the exemptions at section 36 (Prejudice to effective conduct of public affairs), section 40(2) (Personal Information), section 41(1)(Information provided in confidence) and section 43(2)(Commercial Interest). The complainant challenged the use of sections 36, 41(1) and 43(2). The Commissioner finds that the public authority correctly applied sections 36 and 41(1) to withhold the information to which these exemptions were applied. With regards to the information to which section 43(2) was applied the Commissioner finds this was applied correctly only to information relating to one element of the request. The public authority is therefore required to release the information in relation to the other two elements of the request.
Section of Act/EIR & Finding: FOI 10 - Complaint Upheld, FOI 17 - Complaint Upheld, FOI 36 - Complaint Not upheld, FOI 41 - Complaint Not upheld, FOI 43 - Complaint Partly Upheld