London Borough of Hackney

The complainant requested the IP addresses and supporting information that were used to respond to a public consultation organised by the London Borough of Hackney. The London Borough of Hackney refused the request under regulation 13(1) of the Environmental Information Regulations (EIR), as it considered the information to be personal data and that disclosure of the information would breach one of the data protection principles. The Commissioner’s decision is that the information is not personal data and cannot be withheld under regulation 13(1) of the EIR. The London Borough of Hackney also breached regulation 14(2) of the EIR as it did not issue its refusal notice to the complainant’s request within the statutory timeframe of 20 working days. The Commissioner requires the public authority to take the following steps to ensure compliance with the legislation. Disclose the information to the complainant or issue a valid refusal notice which does not rely on regulation 13 of the EIR. The public authority must take these steps within 35 calendar days of the date of this decision notice. Failure to comply may result in the Commissioner making written certification of this fact to the High Court pursuant to section 54 of the Act and may be dealt with as a contempt of court. Information Tribunal appeal EA/2014/0300 dismissed.