City of York Council (Decision Notice): ICO 11 May 2011

ICO The complainant submitted a request to the City of York Council (‘the Council’) for information from environmental records held on a property in York. The Council stated that it would only provide a collated version of this information upon provision of a fee. During the course of the investigation, the Council also informed the Commissioner that it relied on the exception at regulation 12(4)(b), which applies to manifestly unreasonable requests. The Commissioner finds that Council has breached regulations 5(1) and 5(2) of the EIR as it failed to make the requested information available on request within the statutory time for compliance. The Council has also breached regulation 6(2)(c) by failing to make the complainant aware of the appeal provisions of the EIR when refusing to provide information in a specific format. The Council has breached regulation 8(3) by charging an unreasonable fee for providing some of the information. The Commissioner finds that the Council applied the exception at regulation 12(4)(b) incorrectly. The Council has breached regulation 14(3)(a) by failing to cite the exception it relied upon in its response to the complainant, and regulation 14(3)(b) by failing to inform the complainant of the details of its public interest test in relation to the exception. The Commissioner requires the Council to make the requested information available for the complainant in the form of a print-out within 35 days of this notice.
Section of Act/EIR and Finding: EIR 5 – Complaint Upheld, EIR 5 – Complaint Upheld, EIR 6 – Complaint Upheld, EIR 8 – Complaint Upheld, EIR 12.4.b – Complaint Upheld, EIR 14 – Complaint Upheld, EIR 14 – Complaint Upheld

Citations:

[2011] UKICO FER0349470

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Information

Updated: 16 May 2022; Ref: scu.530446