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You are here: BAILII >> Databases >> Information Commissioner's Office >> Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Decision Notice) [2014] UKICO FS50506510 (06 March 2014)
URL: http://www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKICO/2014/FS50506510.html
Cite as: [2014] UKICO FS50506510
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Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Decision Notice) [2014] UKICO FS50506510 (06 March 2014)
Summary: The complainant has requested information from DEFRA about the number of pig movements over a 12 month period. The request for information included details of the number of animals involved, the dates of the movement and the outbound postcode of the originating and destination premises. DEFRA sought to rely upon section 40(2) of the FOIA. It stated that some of the requested information was personal data and that its release would infringe the Data Protection Principles as its release would be unfair. In respect of information relating to commercial enterprises it advised that it was not able to separately identify this information without manually going through 178,000 data entries. The Commissioner-™s decision is that the exemption at section 40(2) is engaged in relation to the information that has been requested in so far as it relates to the information of individuals or sole traders. Further, that DEFRA has incorrectly applied section 40(2) to the information which concerns commercial enterprises. In failing to disclose the non- personal information to the complainant it has breached section 1(1)(b) and section 10 of the FOIA. However, the Commissioner considers that he has discretion not to order a step to remedy non-compliance with section 1 because to do so would be manifestly unreasonable, in this particular case, in terms of the administrative burden it would create. He therefore does not require DEFRA to take any steps.
Section of Act/EIR & Finding: FOI 1 - Complaint Upheld, FOI 10 - Complaint Upheld, FOI 40 - Complaint Partly Upheld