Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames

The complainant has requested from the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames (the “Council”) information relating to the Decant Policy for the Council’s regeneration programme. The complainant has asked the Commissioner to consider the Council’s reliance on section 40(2) (third party personal data) and section 42(1) (legal professional privilege) of the FOIA to withhold parts of the requested information. He has also challenged the Council’s redaction of some material on the grounds that it was not captured by the request. The Commissioner’s decision is that section 40(2) and section 42(1) of the FOIA were correctly cited. However, the Commissioner requires the Council to issue a fresh response to the complainant with regard to the documents specified in paragraph 21 that she has found do fall within the scope of the request. The Commissioner also requires the Council to disclose the information contained within the documents specified in paragraph 39, which the Council agreed during the investigation, could be provided. 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.