Southend-on-sea Borough Council

The complainant requested copies of formal consultation responses made to Southend-on-Sea Borough Council (the ‘Council’) following a school catchment meeting held in September 2017. The Council aggregated the complainant’s six previous requests, made on separate dates, as provided under section 12(4) of FOIA and refused to comply with the current seventh request, citing section 12(1) of FOIA, the cost of compliance. It said that the cost limit had already been exceeded in responding to the previous requests. The Commissioner’s decision is that the Council was entitled to aggregate the all seven requests in accordance with section 12(4) of FOIA. Therefore, she considers that the appropriate cost limit would be exceeded by responding to the current request. She finds that the Council has complied with section 16 of FOIA in providing appropriate advice and assistance to the complainant in relation to his current request. However, by failing to respond to the request and issue a refusal notice within the statutory timescale of 20 working days, the Commissioner finds that the Council has breached sections 10 (time for compliance) and 17 (refusal of a request) of FOIA. The Commissioner does not require the Council to take any steps.