Information Commissioner's Office

Creech St Michael Parish Council

23 February 2015, Local government (Parish council)

The complainant requested from Creech St Michael Parish Council (“the council”) a copy of a recording made at a meeting when the sale of an area of land known as Merlyn’s Copse was discussed. The council initially relied on the exception under regulation 12(5)(e) of the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (“the EIR”) to withhold the information. This exception concerns prejudice to commercial interests. During the Commissioner’s investigation, the council clarified that it did not hold the information, which the complainant accepted. The Commissioner’s decision is that the council breached section 1(1)(a) and 10(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (“the FOIA”) for failing to state that the information was not held. It also breached regulation 14(2) and 14(3)(a) of the EIR for failing to state that the information was not held. There were additional breaches of regulation 14(2), 14(5)(a) and (b) under the EIR because of the failure to inform the requester of his statutory rights to request an internal review and appeal to the Information Commissioner. 

FOI 1: Upheld FOI 10: Upheld EIR 14: Upheld