Information Commissioner's Office

Lambeth London Borough Council

12 October 2017, Local government (Borough council)

The complainant has requested minutes of meeting and other information about the Estate Regeneration Board in Lambeth. The London Borough of Lambeth (“LBL”) initially treated this as an FOIA request and refused under section 21 (information accessible by other means) and section 36 (prejudice to the effective conduct of public affairs) of that legislation. It upheld this at internal review. During the Commissioner’s investigation, it acknowledged that the request should have been dealt with under the EIR because it was a request for environmental information. However, it argued that it was not obliged to comply with the request by virtue of regulation 12(4)(b) (manifestly unreasonable request due to the cost of compliance). The Commissioner’s decision is that LBL is entitled to rely on regulation 12(4)(b) as its basis for refusing to comply with the request. No steps are required.

EIR 12(4)(b): Not upheld