Blackpool Borough Council

The complainant requested information from Blackpool Borough Council (“the council”) about how much it had spent on outsourcing to either barristers or solicitors for employment tribunals between 1 August 2000 and 31 October 2010. The council refused to comply with the request on the basis that section 12(1) was engaged, the exclusion relating to the costs limit under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (“the FOIA”). The council estimated that it could search 27 files before the “appropriate limit” under section 12(1) was exceeded. The complainant asked the council to undertake this work, starting from 2010 and working backwards. The council said that the complainant had not sufficiently refined the request. The Commissioner’s decision is that the council breached section 16(1) of the FOIA by failing to provide reasonable advice and assistance and section 1(1)(a) and 10(1) for failing to confirm or deny whether it holds any information falling within the scope of the refined request. The Commissioner requires the public authority to search the 27 files that it estimated could be searched within the appropriate limit.