Sunderland City Council

The complainant requested minutes from the Corporate Human Resources Committee of Sunderland City Council (the Council) in relation to the recent departure of its former Chief Executive – Dr David Smith. The Council refused the request under section 40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the Act) as the information was third party personal data and disclosure would breach the Data Protection Act. The Commissioner’s decision is that the Council was correct to refuse the request under section 40(2) of the Act.