Sheffield City Council

The complainant has requested information associated with the Independent Tree Panel which was set up to give advice to Sheffield City Council (‘the Council’) on how it manages its highway trees. The Council denied holding the requested information and also said that some information that had some relevance to the complainant’s request was exempt from disclosure under section 21(1) of the FOIA (information accessible to the applicant). The Commissioner’s decision is as follows: The Council should have managed the request under the EIR and not the FOIA. In accordance with regulation 3(2) of the EIR, the Council did not hold information falling within the scope of the request at the time the request was received. The Commissioner does not require the Council to take any steps.