Information Commissioner's Office

Croydon London Borough Council

16 June 2014, Local government (Borough council)

The complainant has requested the estimated value of the fees to be paid, by the London Borough of Croydon (the council) to an auction house, in return for selling at auction some items from the council’s collection of rare and valuable Chinese porcelain. The Commissioner’s decision is that the council correctly applied the section 43(2) FOIA exemption to all of the withheld information as disclosure would prejudice the interests of itself and the auction house. He proceeded to consider the balance of the public interest and decided that it would, however, be in the public interest for part of the information to be disclosed. For other parts of the withheld information, he decided that it would be in the public interest to maintain the exemption. The Commissioner requires the council, to ensure compliance with the legislation, to disclose the information indicated as such in the confidential annex that accompanies this notice.

FOI 43: Partly upheld