Information Commissioner's Office

Thanet District Council

5 May 2016, Local government (District council)

The complainant submitted a request to Thanet District Council (the Council) for information from its files regarding planning issues concerning a particular piece of land. The Council provided the complainant with some information but withheld the remainder on the basis of section 31 of FOIA. The Council subsequently accepted that this request should have been considered under the EIR and therefore sought to rely instead on the exception contained at regulation 12(5)(b). The Commissioner is satisfied that the Council is entitled to rely on this exception. However, in handling this request it did breach the procedural requirements of the EIR contained at regulations 14(2) and 14(3) by failing to respond to the request within 20 working days and failing to initially deal with the request under the EIR.

EIR 12(5)(b): Not upheld EIR 14(2): Upheld EIR 14(3): Upheld