Devon County Council
- Date 18 February 2020
- Sector Local government
- Decision(s) EIR 12.5.b: Not upheld, EIR 14.2: Upheld, EIR 5.2: Upheld
The complainant has requested copies of correspondence relating to a prosecution. Devon County Council provided some information under data protection legislation and withheld two documents which it said would adversely affect the course of justice if disclosed. It thus relied on Regulation 12(5)(b) of the EIR to withhold the information. The Commissioner’s decision is that the Council has applied the exception correctly to withhold information. She also considers that the Council has identified all the information it holds, within the scope of the request, that would fall within the EIR. However, it failed to disclose all the information not covered by exceptions and failed to provide the complainant with a refusal notice stating all the exceptions on which it wished to rely, within 20 working days and thus breached Regulations 5(2) and 14(2) of the FOIA respectively. The Commissioner does not require further steps.