London Borough of Hounslow

The complainant submitted a request to the London Borough of Hounslow (the Council) seeking information about the disposal of a particular piece of land. The Council initially sought to withhold the information on the basis of section 43(2) (commercial interests) of FOIA before arguing that the information was exempt from disclosure on the basis of regulation 12(5)(e) (commercial confidentiality) and regulation 12(5)(f) (interests of the person who provided the information to the public authority) of the EIR. The Commissioner has concluded that the information falling within the scope of the request is exempt from disclosure on the basis of regulation 12(5)(e) of the EIR and that in all the circumstances of the request the public interest favours maintaining the exception.