Information Commissioner's Office

Carmarthenshire County Council

16 July 2015, Local government (County council)

The complainant requested information relating to a particular planning application. Carmarthenshire County Council (‘the Council’) refused to provide the information citing regulation 6(1)(b) of the EIR as it considered the information requested to be publicly available and easily accessible for viewing at its offices. During the course of the Commissioner’s investigation, the Council confirmed that, following a review of its processes, more planning information was now published online. The Council stated that the information requested was therefore also available to view online. In addition, as a result of queries raised by the complainant, the Council identified additional information relevant to the request, which was neither available for viewing at the time of the request, nor published online, which it provided to the complainant. The Commissioner’s decision is that the Council correctly applied regulation 6(1)(b) to some information but it breached regulation 5(2) in relation to other information held relevant to the request.  The Commissioner does not require any steps to be taken. This decision notice is currently under appeal to the Tribunal.

EIR 5(2): Upheld EIR 6(1)(b): Not upheld