ICO The complainant submitted a request to Selby District Council (‘the Council’) for information from environmental records held on a property in Selby. The Council stated that it would provide a collated version of this information upon provision of a fee, as it was reasonable for it to make the information available in a format other than inspection under regulation 6(1)(a). The Council also applied 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 breached regulation 8(3) by imposing a charge for the costs of activities it was not entitled to take into account. The Council has also breached regulation 11(4) by failing to provide its internal review outcome within 40 working days. The Commissioner finds that the Council applied the exception at regulation 12(4)(b) incorrectly, and that it breached regulation 14(2) by failing to inform the complainant that it relied upon this exception within the statutory time for compliance. However, the Commissioner finds that the Council correctly relied upon regulation 6(1)(a) as it was reasonable for it to make information available in a format other than inspection. The Commissioner requires the Council to make the requested information available to the complainant in an alternative format within 35 days of this notice.
Section of Act/EIR and Finding: EIR 5 – Complaint Upheld, EIR 5 – Complaint Upheld, EIR 6 – Complaint Not upheld, EIR 8 – Complaint Upheld, EIR 11 – Complaint Upheld, EIR 12.4.b – Complaint Upheld, EIR 14 – Complaint Upheld
Citations:
[2011] UKICO FER0354514
Links:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Information
Updated: 05 April 2022; Ref: scu.530482