Information Commissioner's Office

Hickling Parish Council

3 June 2015, Local government (Parish council)

The complainant requested evidence which the parish council relied upon when using a copy of the electoral roll for purposes relating to a village charity. The council applied section 40(2) to the information to withhold the names of individual within the correspondence. The Commissioner’s decision is that the council has incorrectly applied section 40(2) to the majority of the withheld information. He does however consider that the exemption was correctly applied to the private email addresses of parish councillors. The Commissioner requires the public authority to take the following steps to ensure compliance with the legislation. To disclose the names of the individuals which have been redacted from the emails which were disclosed to the complainant. 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

FOI 40: Upheld