Information Commissioner's Office

Lambeth London Borough Council

27 April 2017, Local government (Borough council)

The complainant has requested from the London Borough of Lambeth (“the Council”) correspondence relating to the Carnegie Library, Herne Hill (“the library”). The Council applied the exception under regulation 12(4)(b) of the EIR (manifestly unreasonable on grounds of cost) as it considered that complying with the request would place an unreasonable burden on the Council’s resources. With regard to the public interest test, the Council found that the balance of the public interest favoured maintaining the exception because of the resources that would be needed to comply with the requests, and explained that some information was already in the public domain. The Commissioner’s decision is that the Council has correctly applied regulation 12(4)(b) and the public interest favours maintaining the exception. However, the Commissioner considers that the Council has not met its obligations under regulation 9(1) by its failure to provide sufficient advice and assistance to the complainant. Furthermore, she has found that the Council has breached regulation 14(2) by failing to respond to the request and issue a refusal notice within the statutory timeframe. The Commissioner requires the public authority to take the following steps to ensure compliance with the legislation - Provide a response to the complainant which complies with regulation 9(1) of the EIR.

EIR 12(4)(b): Not upheld EIR 9(1): Upheld EIR 14(2): Upheld