Sheffield City Council

The complainant requested a copy of an independent review (the “Newton Report”) into the circumstances of the fraud committed by the former manager of the South Yorkshire Trading Standards Unit. Sheffield City Council (the “council”) refused to provide the information on the grounds that it was intended for future publication and because it considered that the information was ‘commercially sensitive’. The Commissioner’s decision is that the public authority has failed to demonstrate that the exemptions are engaged. The Commissioner has decided that a small quantity of information contained within the Newton Report should be withheld because it constitutes an individual’s sensitive personal data. The Commissioner requires the public authority to disclose the withheld information, subject to the redactions identified in the confidential annex.