Information Commissioner's Office

Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council

27 April 2017, Local government (Borough council)

The complainant has requested a copy of a report in to the treatment of a group of whistle-blowers. The Council applied section 36(2)(b) to the report in its entirety and, during the course of the Commissioner’s investigation, it also applied section 40(2) to some parts of the report. The Commissioner’s decision is that the Council is entitled to rely on section 40(2) to withhold the majority of the report. There is however a limited amount of information which the Commissioner has found cannot be withheld under either section 40(2) or section 36(2)(b) and therefore should be disclosed. The Commissioner requires the public authority to disclose the information set out in the confidential annexe.

FOI 40: Not upheld FOI 36: Upheld