Felliscliffe Parish Council

The complainant has requested information relating to named properties, as well as copies of any notes circulated among parish council members at a specified meeting. In response, Felliscliffe Parish Council (the “Parish”) provided some of the requested information or otherwise claimed that the requested information was not held. It did, however, redact a limited amount of information contained in emails which identified the individual who had taken photographs of the specified properties, under section 40(2) (third party personal data) of FOIA. These photographs had been passed to the planning enforcement officer of Harrogate Borough Council (“Harrogate”) by the Parish. The Commissioner’s decision is that the Parish has correctly applied section 40(2) of FOIA. He does not therefore require the Parish to take any steps as a result of this notice. The Commissioner has, though, found that the Parish breached section 17(7) of FOIA by its handling of the request.