Mid Suffolk County Council

The complainant made a request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the “Act”) to Suffolk County Council (the “council”) for a copy of the Combined Aerial Rescue Pump Report. The council refused to disclose this information and applied section 40(2), section 41 and section 43(2). During the course of the Commissioner’s investigation the council withdrew its application of section 41 and section 43(2), it also applied section 36(2)(b)(i) and (ii) and section 36(2)(c). The Commissioner considers that section 36(2)(b)(i) was correctly applied in this case however the public interest arguments in favour of disclosure outweigh the public interest arguments in favour of maintaining the exemption and therefore the information should be disclosed. The Commissioner considers that section 36(2)(b)(ii) and section 36(2)(c) were incorrectly applied in this case. The Commissioner does however consider that section 40(2) was correctly applied to some parts of the information and therefore this information should be withheld.