Information Commissioner's Office

Transport for London

20 March 2017, Education (Other)

The complainant has requested information about a particular retail unit based in South Kensington Station which is occupied by his company together with information on the potential redevelopment of the station. TfL disclosed some information about the retail unit but withheld other information under the exceptions provided by regulation 12(4)(d) – information still in the course of completion, regulation 12(5)(b) – adverse effect to the course of justice, regulation 12(5)(e) – commercial confidentiality, regulation 13 – third party personal data. It refused to consider the request for information on the potential redevelopment of the station under regulation 12(4)(b) on the basis that, due to the volume of information involved, it was manifestly unreasonable. During the course of the Commissioner’s investigation TfL extended its application of regulation 12(4)(b) to the entire request both on the grounds it was burdensome and that it now considered the request to be vexatious. However the Commissioner advised TfL that not all the information was environmental. As a consequence TfL then applied the exemptions provided by section 12 – cost limit, section 14 – vexatious, section 40(2) – personal data, section 42 – legal professional privilege and section 43(2) – prejudice to commercial interests.  As well as challenging the application of these exemptions/exceptions the complainant believes there is missing information ie that TfL failed to identify all the information captured by the request. The Commissioner’s decision is that TfL is not entitled to rely on section 12 or 14 to refuse the request in its entirety in respect of the non-environmental information captured by the request. TfL is entitled to rely on section 40(2) to withhold the third party personal data. Although section 42 can be relied on to withhold some of the information to which it has been applied the Commissioner finds that some of the material is not capable of attracting legal professional privilege. Section 43(2) only applies to some of the information to which it has been applied.  In respect of the environmental information the Commissioner finds that it can all be withheld under regulation 12(4)(b) and therefore has not gone on to consider the application of exceptions to specific pieces of information. However TfL has no fulfilled its obligations to provide advice and assistance under regulation 9.  The Commissioner requires the public authority to take the following steps to ensure compliance with the legislation. Having found that TfL is not entitled to refuse the request for non-environmental information under section 12 or 14, TfL is required to carry out searches for the missing information and provide the complainant with a fresh response in respect of that information. Disclose the information which the Commissioner has found is not exempt under sections 42 and 43(2). Provide advice and assistance in accordance with regulation 9 in respect of the environmental information captured by the request.

FOI 12: Upheld FOI 14: Upheld FOI 40: Not upheld FOI 42: Partly upheld FOI 43: Partly upheld EIR 9: Upheld EIR 12(4)(b): Not upheld