Information Commissioner's Office

Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council

25 January 2016, Local government (Borough council)

The complaint concerns a request for the minutes of three separate committee meetings.  Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council (‘the Council’) has refused to release this information.  The Council says it is exempt under section 36 of the FOIA (prejudice to the effective conduct of public affairs) and that the public interest favours the information being withheld. The Commissioner’s decision is that section 36(2)(b)(i) and (ii) have been correctly applied to the requested information and that the public interest favours withholding some of the information (item 15).  However he finds that the public interest favours releasing the remainder of the information. The Commissioner requires the public authority to take the following step to ensure compliance with the legislation: Release items 18 and 19 to the complainant. The public authority must take this step 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 36: Partly upheld