Information Commissioner's Office

Shepway District Council

17 January 2017, Local government (District council)

The complainant submitted a request to the public authority for the legal advice obtained by the authority in relation to the construction of a lorry park in Stanford by Highways England to ease congestion on the M20/A20 road network, along with correspondence relating to the legal advice. The public authority disclosed the related correspondence held within the scope of the request during the course of the Commissioner’s investigation. However, it maintained that the instructions to counsel and the advice provided by counsel are legally privileged and therefore exempt from disclosure. The Commissioner has concluded that the withheld information constitutes environmental information within the meaning in regulation 2(1) of the EIR, and that the public authority was entitled to withhold it in reliance on the exception contained at regulation 12(5)(b) of the EIR.

EIR 12(5)(b): Not upheld