Norwich City Council

The complainant made two connected requests a few days apart, requesting information about the traffic aspects of a planning consent application within a consultants’ report which Norwich City Council (Norwich) had once held. Norwich refused the request on the grounds that the information was not held. The Information Commissioner decided that the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (EIRs) applied. He decided that Norwich had breached Regulation 2(1)(c) in not recognising that the EIRs applied but that the information requested was not held and that the request should have been refused relying on the exception in Regulation 12(4)(a). In respect of the second request the Commissioner decided that Norwich had refused the request within the time allowed by Regulation 14(2). The time taken by Norwich to complete its review of its refusal to provide the information requested fell well within the Regulation 11(4) time limit. The Commissioner decided that Norwich had breached Regulation 14(2) in its late refusal of the first request and that Norwich should have refused the request under the exception at Regulation 12(4)(a).