St Helens Council

The complainant has requested a copy of an invoice and the associated receipt of its payment from St Helens Parish Council (the “Parish Council”). During the Commissioner’s investigation, having reconsidered the wording of the request, the Parish Council advised the complainant that it did not hold the requested information. The Commissioner’s decision is that the Parish Council’s interpretation of the request is a reasonable one and she is satisfied, on the civil standard of the balance of probabilities, that the Parish Council does not hold the information requested. However, she finds that the Parish Council issued a refusal notice which was both inadequate and provided outside the statutory time period for responding. It thus breached sections 1, 10 and 17 of the FOIA, respectively.