SIC Inverclyde Council Future Operating Model – Mr Purdie requested from Inverclyde Council (the Council) information relating to the investigation by the Council into the implementation and management of its Future Operating Model. The Council responded, disclosing some of the requested information, but withholding other information on the basis that its disclosure would prejudice substantially the administration of justice and the Council’s ability to ascertain whether circumstances exist which would justify regulatory action being taken,(sections 35(1)(c) and 35(1)(g) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA)).
After seeking a review, Mr Purdie remained dissatisfied and applied to the Commissioner for a decision.
During the investigation, the Council disclosed information to Mr Purdie which would address two of the three parts of his request, but continued to apply the exemptions in section 35 of FOISA to some of the information which would address part (a) of the request. This decision considers only the information that continued to be withheld by the Council.
Following an investigation, the Commissioner found that the Council had partially failed to deal with Mr Purdie’s request for information in accordance with Part 1 of FOISA. By relying on the exemption in section 35(1)(c) of FOISA for withholding most of the information under consideration in this decision, the Council complied with Part 1 of FOISA. However, the Commissioner found that certain information which had been withheld within two emails was not exempt from disclosure under either section 35(1)(c) or section 35(1)(g) (read in conjunction with section 35(2)(c)) of FOISA. The Commissioner required the Council to disclose this information.
In addition, the Commissioner found that, in failing to respond to Mr Purdie’s request for information within 20 working days, the Council failed to comply with section 10(1) of FOISA.
Citations:
[2012] ScotIC 081 – 2012)
Links:
Scotland, Information
Updated: 22 October 2022; Ref: scu.457814
