Information Commissioner's Office

Goring Parish Council

23 June 2014, Local government (Parish council)

The complainant has requested correspondence between Goring Parish Council (“the Council”) and its external auditor since 26 June 2013. The Commissioner’s decision is that the Council has breached section 17(1) of the FOIA in respect of its redaction of information from an email dated 8 October 2013 15:30. This email contains of the applicant’s personal data and is therefore exempt from disclosure under the FOIA by virtue of section 40(1).The Commissioner has also decided that the Council incorrectly relied on section 40(2) in respect of the redacted information in the email dated 19 August 2013 12:34. The Commissioner considers that the redacted information is the applicant’s personal data and therefore it is exempt from disclosure under the FOIA by virtue of section 40(1). The redacted information in the two emails dated 16 September 2013 10:31 and 8 October 2013 15:07 is the personal data of a third party. The Commissioner has decided that the Council was correct to apply section 40(2) of the FOIA to the information which it had redacted. The Commissioner does not require any further action to be taken in respect of these emails.

FOI 17: Upheld FOI 40: Not upheld