East Riding of Yorkshire Council

The complainant has requested all minutes relating to meetings involving the ‘East Yorkshire Parent Carer Forum’ and East Riding of Yorkshire Council from a period of over two years. The Council stated that the entirety of this information was withheld under the exemption provided by section 36(2)(c) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. The Council subsequently confirmed to the Commissioner that the withheld information was contained across 91 individual documents, and that it considered these 91 documents to fall within the parameters of the request. The Commissioner’s decision is that the Council has failed to undertake appropriate searches to comply with the duty imposed by section 1. In respect of that information so far identified which falls within the parameters of the request, the Council has failed to demonstrate that the exemption provided by section 36(2)(c) is engaged. The Council also breached section 17 by issuing a refusal notice outside the time for compliance.  The Commissioner requires the Council to take the following steps to ensure compliance with the legislation. Undertake a fresh search for information that would fall within the parameters of the request, and issue a fresh response to the requestor. In preparing this response, the Commissioner advises the Council to refer to the content of this decision notice, and the observations provided in ‘Other matters’.