Information Commissioner's Office

Trafford Metropolitan Borough Council

22 June 2017, Local government (Borough council)

The complainant has requested information with regards to three areas of land. Trafford Borough Council (the council) initially responded that no information was held for the majority of the request and provided a link to information for the remaining part of it. Following an internal review, the council located some further information but stopped its searches when it realised that it would be too costly to continue to search any further and relied on regulation 12(4)(b) of the EIR – manifestly unreasonable – to do so.  The complainant considers that the council should carry out a full search for all the information it holds. The Commissioner’s decision is that regulation 12(4)(b) of the EIR is engaged to the request and so the council does not need to carry out any further searches for this request. She also found that the council provided reasonable advice and assistance as per regulation 9 of the EIR. The Commissioner does not require the council to take any steps and it would be for the complainant to refine his request to the council accordingly, should he wish to pursue the further information the council located following its internal review.

EIR 12(4)(b): Not upheld