Summary: The complainant has requested inspection of environmental information from Hampshire County Council (the council) to enable it to answer the questions on the Con29R property search form. The council refused to provide some of the information in the requested format relying on regulation 6(1)(b). It also stated that in the alternative the complainant was directed to the council-™s paid services to provide answers to the search questions. The Commissioner-™s decision is that the council was correct to say that some of the requested information was publically available and easily accessible in another form or format, ie that regulation 6(1)(b) applied to questions 3.4, 3.5, 3.6 and 3.11. However, he finds that the council has breached regulation 5(1) in failing to make all the requested information available on request and regulation 5(2) as it failed to make it available within the statutory time for compliance. The Commissioner also finds that the council did not complete an internal review within the prescribed time frame and therefore breached regulation 11(4). The Commissioner requires the public authority to provide the complainant with appropriately redacted versions of the notices falling within the scope of question 3.7.
Section of Act/EIR & Finding: EIR 5 - Complaint Upheld, EIR 6 - Complaint Not upheld, EIR 11 - Complaint Upheld