Summary: The complainant requested information concerning housing jobs carried out by the council-s Housing Department. Exeter City Council (-the council-) refused to provide the information, relying on the exemption relating to personal information and the exclusion relating to costs under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (-the FOIA-). During the Commissioner-s investigation, the council also introduced an exemption under the FOIA relating to the prevention of crime and alternatively sought to rely on exceptions under the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (-the EIR-). The Commissioner-s decision is that the request should be considered under the FOIA. He decided that the council correctly withheld information that could identify individual tenants using the exemption relating to personal information, however, the Commissioner decided that the council should have disclosed the other information requested because the costs exclusion did not apply. It was not necessary to consider the application of the exemption relating to crime. The Commissioner requires the public authority to take the following steps to ensure compliance with the legislation. It should disclose the withheld spreadsheet to the complainant but it should redact the addresses of the properties and any other information that could identify the individual tenants such as names and contact details.
Section of Act/EIR & Finding: FOI 31 - Complaint Partly Upheld