Information Commissioner's Office

Birmingham City Council

26 January 2016, Local government (City council)

The complainant has requested information in relation to an incident that happened within his block of flats. The council provided some information to part of his request and refused to provide the CCTV footage as it considered it third party personal data. Following a complaint to the Commissioner, it was clarified that it was not the CCTV footage, but the timeframes of the incidents that the complainant was seeking for the parts refused by the council. The council, after clarification of what was actually being sought, no longer looked to refuse the request as third party personal data and provided the timeframe for one of the 3 incidents, and stated the information was not held for the other two. Following enquiries by the Commissioner, his decision is that the council does hold information in order to provide a response to parts 1 and 3 of the request and is satisfied with the time provided for part 2 of his request. The Commissioner requires the public authority to take the following steps to ensure compliance with the legislation. Issue a fresh response to the complainant with regards to parts 1 and 3 of his request as outlined in paragraph 30 and 31 of this decision notice. 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 1: Upheld