Mid and East Antrim Borough Council

The complainant has requested information from Mid & East Antrim Borough Council (‘the Council’) about its attendance at a dinner hosted by Ian Paisley, MP. The Council disclosed some information and withheld the reminder, citing the exemption at section 40(2) (personal data) of the FOIA.

The Commissioner’s decision is that the Council was entitled to rely on section 40(2) of the FOIA to refuse to disclose the names of local business people it had invited to attend the dinner as its guests. However, she found that it was not entitled to rely on section 40(2) to refuse to disclose the names of the Council employees who attended the dinner. The Commissioner also found breaches of section 1 and section 17 of the FOIA with regard to the Council’s handling of the request.  The Commissioner requires the Council to disclose to the complainant the names of all Council employees who attended the dinner.