Information Commissioner's Office

Wandsworth Council

9 November 2017, Local government (District council)

In 13 requests, the complainant has requested information from London Borough of Wandsworth Council (‘the Council’) about its purchase of particular properties.  The Council has released some information and says some of the information is exempt from release under section 21 of the FOIA because it is already reasonably accessible to the complainant.  The complainant considers that the Council holds information within the scope of nine of his requests that it has not released. The Commissioner’s decision is that, on the balance of probabilities, the Council has released all the information that it holds within the scope of requests 1, 3, 4, 5, 6 7, 9 and 10 and has complied with its obligations under section 1(1) of the FOIA with regard to these requests. However, the Commissioner finds that the Council holds further information within the scope of request 2 that it has not released and has breached section 1(1)(a) with regards to this information.  The Commissioner also finds that the Council has breached section 10(1) (time for compliance) with regard to this information. The Commissioner requires the Council to take the following step to ensure compliance with the legislation: Comply with section 1 as appropriate with regards to the information it holds within the scope of request 2.

FOI 1: Partly upheld FOI 10: Partly upheld