Information Commissioner's Office

Manchester City Council

28 September 2015, Local government (City council)

The complainant requested information from Manchester City Council (“the council”) concerning plans for a new primary school on the site of a former university building in Didsbury. The council initially supplied a copy of one email and details of meetings falling within the scope of the requests. The complainant alleged that more information was held. The Commissioner’s decision is that the council should have considered the requests under the terms of the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (“the EIR”). A small amount of additional information came to light during the Commissioner’s investigation and this has now been provided. The Commissioner accepts that on the balance of probabilities, the council has now provided all the information that it held however, he finds that the council breached its obligations under regulation 5(1) and 5(2) to respond within 20 working days and provide all the recorded information held. The Commissioner also found a breach of regulation 11(4) of the EIR for the failure to conduct an internal review within 40 working days. There are no steps to take.

EIR 5(1): Upheld EIR 5(2): Upheld EIR 11(4): Upheld