Information Commissioner's Office

Worcestershire County Council

18 August 2015, Local government (County council)

The complainant made a request to Worcestershire County Council (“the Council”) for a variation agreement to an existing contract to build a Waste Incinerator. The Council disclosed the information it held but redacted some information by relying on the exception in regulation 12(5)(e) (Commercial confidentiality) of the EIR. The Commissioner has considered the complaint and found that regulation 12(5)(e) was correctly applied to some of the requested information and that where the exception was engaged the public interest in maintaining the exception outweighed the public interest in disclosure. However, the Commissioner also found that the majority of the withheld information was not covered by the regulation 12(5)(e) exception and should be disclosed. The Commissioner requires the public authority to disclose to the complainant an un-redacted copy of the variation agreement with the exception of certain financial information. The Council should only redact details of charges, fees or prices to be paid in respect of the Variation Agreement or the WMSC contract. Only actual figures should be withheld or else any formulae or calculation used to arrive at such figures.  The public authority must take these steps within 35 calendar days of the date of this Decision Notice. Failure to comply may result in the Commissioner making written certification of this fact to the High Court (or the Court of Session in Scotland) pursuant to section 54 of the Act and may be dealt with as a contempt of court.This decision notice is currently under appeal to the Tribunal.

EIR 12(5)(e): Upheld