Information Commissioner's Office

Sevenoaks District Council

15 August 2017, Local government (District council)

The complainant has requested information about specific expenditure at Sevenoaks District Council (SDC). Some of the requested information has been disclosed, it is SDC‘s position that some of the information is not held and the remainder of the request has been refused by SDC relying on sections 12 and 21. The Commissioner’s decision is that SDC is entitled to rely on section 21 to refuse parts of the request and that on the balance of probabilities some of the information is not held but that SDC has not satisfactorily established that the cost of compliance exceeds the appropriate limit and is not therefore entitled to rely on section 12 to refuse to comply with the request.  Furthermore, SDC has failed to provide any advice or assistance to the complainant and accordingly has breached section 16 FOIA. The Commissioner requires the public authority to take the following steps to ensure compliance with the legislation. Disclose the requested information which has been withheld in accordance with section 12. 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 Act and may be dealt with as a contempt of court.

FOI 1: Not upheld FOI 12: Upheld FOI 16: Upheld