Information Commissioner's Office

Huntingdonshire District Council

19 March 2015, Local government (District council)

The complainant has requested information on job evaluation (JE) scores provided for each job that exists at the council. The council claimed that the information was exempt under section 43(2) (commercial interests) and section 41 (information provided in confidence). It also applied section 21 (information available by other means) to some information falling within the scope of the request. On review the council withdrew its reliance upon section 41 but continued to apply the other exemptions. The Commissioner’s decision is that the council was not correct to apply sections 43(2). He has however decided that section 21 was correctly applied to the information which the council outlined was already available via the council intranet and via cabinet papers. The Commissioner requires the public authority to disclose the information to which section 21 does not apply. This decision notice is currently under appeal to the Tribunal.

FOI 21: Partly upheld