Information Commissioner's Office

Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust

26 November 2015, Health (NHS)

The complainant made a request for information to the Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust (“the Trust”) for information about the purchasing of land for the Midland Metropolitan Hospital. The Trust disclosed some of the requested information but withheld information related to the price paid for plots of land under the exceptions in regulation 12(4)(d) (material still in the course of completion), regulation 12(5)(e) (commercial confidentiality) and regulation 13 (personal information). The Commissioner’s decision is that some of the withheld information is exempt under regulation 12(5)(e) and the public interest favours maintaining the exception. However, the Commissioner also found that some of the withheld information was not exempt under regulation 12(5)(e) or any of the other exceptions cited by the Trust and should be disclosed. The Commissioner requires the public authority to disclose the information in part i) of the request to the complainant. 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.

EIR 12(4)(d): Not upheld EIR 12(5)(e): Partly upheld