Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
- Date 2 March 2021
- Sector Central government
- Decision(s) EIR 11: Upheld, EIR 12.5.g: Not upheld, EIR 13: Partly upheld, EIR 5.2: Upheld
The complainant has requested copies of monitoring reports from Torbay Council, relating to sites receiving Land Release Funding. The Commissioner’s decision is that the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (‘MHCLG’) is entitled to rely upon regulation 12(5)(g) to withhold information. The MHCLG is entitled to rely upon regulation 13 to redact some council officer names however the name of the Senior Responsible Owner (‘SRO’) should be disclosed. The MHCLG responded outside of statutory timescales and therefore breached regulations 11 and 5(2) of the EIR. The Commissioner requires the public authority to take the following steps to ensure compliance with the legislation: disclose the name of the SRO in the monitoring reports.