Information Commissioner's Office

Summary: The complainant requested a copy of the successful bid for the Centre of Independent Living Northampton as well as a copy of the awarded contract. Northamptonshire County Council (-�the Council-�) decided to make a discretionary disclosure of the successful bid (outside the terms of the Freedom of Information Act (-�the FOIA-�)). It also provided some information from the contract but withheld other information using the exemption under section 43(2) of the FOIA. At the end of the Commissioner-�s investigation, the Council also sought to rely on section 40(2) in relation to a small amount of the withheld information. The Commissioner decided that the exemption under section 43(2) was engaged. He found that some information had been correctly withheld upon application of the public interest test but he also considered that some should have been disclosed. The Commissioner found that section 40(2) was engaged. He found breaches of section 1(1)(b), 10(1), 17(1) and 17(1)(a)(b) and (c) of the FOIA. The Commissioner has ordered the disclosure of information within 35 days.
Section of Act/EIR & Finding: FOI 10 - Complaint Upheld, FOI 17 - Complaint Upheld, FOI 40 - Complaint Partly Upheld, FOI 43 - Complaint Partly Upheld