Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council
- Date 11 December 2018
- Sector Local government
- Decision(s) EIR 12.5.e: Not upheld, EIR 5.2: Upheld
The complainant has requested information considered at a council meeting regarding the disposal of a piece of council-owned land for development. Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council (SMBC) disclosed most of the information falling within scope of the request, apart from a small amount of financial information, which it said was exempt from disclosure under regulation 12(5)(e) (commercial confidentiality) of the EIR. The Commissioner’s decision is that SMBC was entitled to rely on the exception at regulation 12(5)(e) to withhold the information. However, she found that SMBC breached regulation 5(2) (time for compliance) as it failed to respond to the complainant’s request for information within 20 working days.