Information Commissioner's Office

Cornwall Council

24 February 2015, Local government (District council)

The complainant requested information relating to land which he bought from the council. He asked for details it holds relating to work carried out on the land by a third party and any enforcement taken against it. The council refused the request on the grounds that Regulation 12(4)(b) applies (manifestly unreasonable). It said that any information it might hold would have been transferred to it by Kerrier Council as part of a merger in 2009 but a lot of information would also have been destroyed or deleted. It therefore does not know whether relevant information is held and it cannot determine this without carrying out significant searches of its archives which would place a disproportionate burden on it. The Commissioner asked the council to provide further information on the application of the exception, however the council failed to provide any information supporting its decision other than to repeat that it would need to search the entire archive to determine whether any information was held. The council failed to provide details of the size of the archive or whether it was indexed when asked to do so however. In the absence of such information the Commissioner’s decision is that the council was not correct to apply Regulation 12(4)(b).  The Commissioner requires the public authority to take the following steps to ensure compliance with the legislation: to respond to the complainants request again without relying upon Regulation 12(4)(b)

EIR 12(4)(b): Upheld