Information Commissioner's Office

Cornwall Council

27 April 2015, Local government (District council)

The complainant has requested recorded information from Cornwall Council which concerns an application for a Certificate of Lawful Existing Use Development at for land at Gilbert’s Coombe, Redruth, Cornwall. The Commissioner’s decision is that Cornwall Council has correctly applied Regulation 13 to most of the personal data contained in the information it previously sent to the complainant and that it has correctly applied Regulation 12(5)(b) in respect of information to which legal professional privilege can be ascribed. The Commissioner requires Cornwall Council to reconsider the extent to which it has redacted personal data from the information it previously sent to the complainant. The focus of its reconsideration should be the seniority of some of the officers named in those documents. The Commissioner also requires the Council to provide the complainant with appropriate advice and assistance in respect of the redactions made to a certificate concerning the burial of a deceased person’s ashes. It should take this action under duty provided by Regulation 9(1) of the EIR. This decision notice is currently under appeal to the Tribunal.

EIR 9: Upheld EIR 12(5)(b): Partly upheld EIR 13: Not upheld