Oil and Pipelines Agency

The complainant asked the Oil & Pipelines Agency (the “public authority”) to provide information relating to a copy of a Site Safety Report. The public provided some of the Report but withheld the remainder citing the exceptions in sections 12(5)(a) and 13(1) of the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (the “EIR”). The complainant has only contested the withholding of information in two appendices of the Report which is withheld under exception 12(5)(a). The Commissioner’s decision is that the exception is engaged and that the public interest in maintaining the exception outweighs that in disclosure. The complaint is not upheld. The public authority’s handling of the request also resulted in breaches of certain procedural requirements of the Act as identified in this Notice. Information Tribunal appeal EA/2011/0143 withdrawn.