Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council

The Commissioner’s decision is that Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council breached regulation 5(1) in initially stating that it held no information in scope of the request. It latterly corrected this position having re-interpreted the request, but as a result breached regulations 5(2) and 14(2) due to the late response. The Commissioner finds that the exception at regulation 12(5)(e) – commercial confidentiality is engaged to withhold part [1] of the request and that the public interest favours maintaining the exception. She finds that the exception at regulation 12(4)(e) - internal communications is engaged in relation to part [2] of the request however the public interest favours disclosure. With regard to the naming of individuals in the minutes, the Commissioner finds that regulation 13 is engaged for the junior officers referenced, however it is not engaged for the Councillors or senior officers of the council. The Commissioner requires the public authority to take the following steps to ensure compliance with the legislation: Disclose the information contained in the minutes that relate to core purpose of the request, being: “where all options on waste collection changes were considered and all other options were discounted”. The information to be released is specifically referenced in Annex 1 of the decision notice.