Information Commissioner's Office

Four Marks Parish Council

2 November 2015, Local government (Parish council)

The complainant requested information from Four Marks Parish Council (“the council”) relating to a reference in council minutes to a legal report on a particular area of land. The council said that the information was excepted under regulation 12(5)(b) and regulation 12(4)(e) of the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (“the EIR”) and the public interest did not favour disclosure. During the Commissioner’s investigation, the complainant alleged that the council had not correctly interpreted his request. The council reconsidered the request and identified further information within scope. It withheld some of this information using the exceptions under regulation 12(5)(b) and 12(4)(e) but said that some information was not excepted in its entirety. The Commissioner’s decision is that information was correctly withheld using regulation 12(5)(b) and 12(4)(e) and the public interest in maintaining the exception outweighed the public interest in disclosing the information. The Commissioner has ordered the disclosure of the information for which no exception was claimed. He has found procedural breaches of regulations 5(1), 5(2), 14(1) and 14(2) of the EIR. The Commissioner requires the public authority to disclose to the complainant a copy of the letter from the solicitors dated 24 February 2015 and the enclosed invoice dated 18 February 2015 except that the council should redact the information contained within both documents that reveals what it sought legal advice about. 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 pursuant to section 54 of the Act and may be dealt with as a contempt of court.

EIR 5(1): Upheld EIR 5(2): Upheld EIR 14(1): Upheld EIR 14(2): Upheld EIR 12(4)(e): Not upheld EIR 12(5)(b): Not upheld