Information Commissioner's Office

Salford City Council

24 June 2015, Local government (City council)

The complainant requested information from Salford City Council (the Council) relating to its councillors and the Mayor of Salford. The Council initially refused the requests as vexatious under section 14(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the Act). After an internal review the Council provided some of the relevant information it held, refused parts of the request under section 40(2) of the Act (third party personal data), and stated some of the requests did not meet the definition of a request as per section 8 of the Act. During the course of the Commissioner’s investigation the Council dropped its use of section 40(2) and provided the relevant information where held. The Commissioner’s decision is that the Council was correct in its view that some requests were not valid as per section 8, and that on the balance of probabilities it is unlikely that any further relevant information is held. The Council breached sections 1(1)(b) and 10(1) of the Act due to the delay in providing the complainant with the information for request 16 that was originally withheld under section 40(2). As the information has now been provided no steps are required.

FOI 1: Upheld FOI 8: Not upheld FOI 10: Upheld FOI 14: Upheld