St Albans Parish Council

The complainant requested information relating to various aspects of St Albans Parish Council’s (the Council’s) decisions and processes. The Council disclosed information in response to the multi-part request, but withheld some information on the basis that section 40(2) (personal information) of the FOIA applied. The complainant believed that the Council held more information within the scope of the request. They also disputed the redactions applied to the information provided. The Commissioner’s decision is that, on the balance of probabilities, the Council has disclosed to the complainant all the information it holds that falls within the scope of the request. However, she found that the Council had applied section 40(2) incorrectly to some of the withheld information, namely the email addresses of Councillors. The Commissioner requires the Council to take the following step to ensure compliance with the legislation: disclose the withheld Councillors’ email addresses.