London Borough of Brent

The complainant submitted a request to the London Borough of Brent (the Council) seeking information about the payments it receives from JC Decaux for the use of advertising boards in the borough. The Council refused to disclose the information relying on section 43(2) (commercial interests) of FOIA. The Commissioner’s decision is that the Council is entitled to rely on section 43(2) of FOIA to withhold the information and that in the all circumstances of the request the public interest favours maintaining the exemption. However, the Council breached section 17(1) by failing to issue a refusal notice citing section 43(2) within the time period required.