Chepstow Town Council

The complainant has requested a copy of a confidential report which was considered at a meeting of the full council. Chepstow Town Council release a redacted version of the report but not its enclosures. It claimed that releasing the remaining information would prejudice the commercial interests of third parties and could constitute an actionable breach of confidence. It thus relied on sections 41(1) and 43(2) of the FOIA to withhold information. The Commissioner’s decision is that the Council has failed to demonstrate that either exemption applies and is thus not entitled to rely on those exemptions. However, she considers that there is personal data within the information which would otherwise be disclosed and she has thus applied sections 40(1) and 40(2) proactively to prevent release of this information into the public domain. The Commissioner also considers that the Council breached both section 17 and section 10 of the FOIA in the way it responded to the request. The Commissioner requires the Council to take the following steps to ensure compliance with the legislation: disclose, to the complainant, the information identified in the confidential annexe to this notice.