Cambridgeshire County Council

The complainant requested information from Cambridgeshire County Council (the Council) about the contract for an overpayments recovery service and any relevant invoices. The Council confirmed it held some information within the scope of the request. It provided some of that information, but refused to provide the remainder citing the exemptions in sections 43(1) and (2) (commercial interests) and 31(1)(a) of FOIA (law enforcement). The Commissioner’s decision is that the Council was entitled to apply section 31. However he finds that section 43 was incorrectly applied to some of the information withheld by virtue of that exemption. The Commissioner requires the public authority to disclose the information incorrectly withheld by virtue of 43(1) and 43(2) as indicated in the confidential annex to this decision notice. Information Tribunal appeal EA/2014/0169 permission to appeal refused.