The complainant has requested copies of correspondence between Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and Toyota regarding the company’s investment in its Burnaston car plant in Derbyshire, which was announced on 16 March 2017. BEIS originally withheld the three documents within scope of the request under sections 35 (formulation or development of government policy), 41 (information provided in confidence) and 43(2)(prejudice to commercial interests) of the FOIA and latterly applied section 29(1)(a)(prejudice to the economic interests of the United Kingdom or of any part of the United Kingdom). BEIS provided the complainant with one of the three documents, (a redacted copy of an email exchange) at internal review and advised the Commissioner during her investigation that they did not consider that section 35 applied to the two remaining withheld documents. The Commissioner’s decision is that BEIS correctly withheld the remaining two documents under section 43(2) of the Act and that at the time of the request the public interest balance favoured maintaining the exemption. She does not therefore require BEIS to take any steps as a result of this notice.
FOI 43: Complaint not upheld
Citations:
[2018] UKICO fs50692003
Links:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Information
Updated: 16 May 2022; Ref: scu.621308
