Information Commissioner's Office

Salisbury District Council

17 July 2017, Local government (District council)

The complainant requested information regarding a complaint against an employee of Salisbury City Council (the Council), and the tender process for the Council’s 2015-2017 Christmas Lights switch on. The Council withheld certain information under section 21 (information accessible to applicant by other means), section 40(1) (applicant’s own personal data), section 40(2) (third party personal data), section 41 (information provided in confidence), section 42 (legal professional privilege) and section 43 (prejudice to commercial interests). The Commissioner’s decision is that for the information relating to the complaint, the Council was entitled to rely on section 40(1) and section 40(2). For the information relating to the price bid by the successful company, the Council was entitled to rely on section 43(2). For the information relating to the tenders and the tendering process, the Council has correctly applied sections 40(1), 40(2) and 43(2) to the majority of the withheld information, but a small amount of the withheld information has been incorrectly withheld. The Commissioner finds that the Council was not entitled to rely on section 21. The Commissioner also finds that the Council breached section 10 of the FOIA by providing its original response outside of the statutory timeframe of twenty working days. The Commissioner requires the public authority to provide the disclosed information again with the withheld information specified in the confidential annex included to ensure compliance with the legislation. The public authority must take these steps within 35 calendar days of the date of this decision notice. Failure to comply may result in the Commissioner making written certification of this fact to the High Court pursuant to section 54 of the FOIA and may be dealt with as a contempt of court.

FOI 40(1): Upheld FOI 40(2): Upheld FOI 43(2): Partly upheld FOI 21: Not upheld FOI 10: Upheld