Information Commissioner's Office

Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

9 March 2017, Health (NHS)

The complainant has requested information in relation to its removal from a contract to remove waste from two hospital sites, the appointed of an interim contractor and the appointed of that same contractor to a longer term contract following a formal procurement exercise. The Trust disclosed some information but withheld a limited amount under the exemption provided by section 43(2) – commercial prejudice. The complainant has not challenged the application of section 43 but did argue that additional information was held. Failure to identify all the information captured by a request would constitute a breach of section 1. Following further searches some additional information was located, some of which was released. The Commissioner’s decision is that, on the balance of probabilities, the Trust’s searches have now identified all the information falling within the scope of the request.  The Commissioner does not require the public authority to take any further action in this matter.

FOI 1: Not upheld