Oxford City Council
- Date 13 April 2022
- Sector Local government
- Decision(s) EIR 11.4: Upheld, EIR 12.5.c: Upheld, EIR 12.5.e: Upheld, EIR 13.1: Upheld, EIR 5.2: Upheld
The complainant has requested building control inspection reports and building plans relating to a specific application.
The Commissioner’s decision is that Oxford City Council (the Council) has not demonstrated that regulation 13(1), regulation 12(5)(c) and regulation 12(5)(e) are engaged, and therefore cannot rely on them to refuse to disclose the requested information.
Furthermore, the Commissioner has found there to be a breach of regulation 5(2) as the Council failed to respond to the request within 20 working days, and a breach of regulation 11(4) as the Council failed to provide its internal review decision within 40 working days from receipt of the complainant’s representations.
The Commissioner requires the public authority to take the following steps to ensure compliance with the legislation.
Disclose the requested information, with the exception of names and mobile telephone numbers throughout the inspection note documents, which should be redacted.
The public authority must take these steps within 35 calendar days of the date of this decision notice. Failure to comply may result in the Commissioner making written certification of this fact to the High Court pursuant to section 54 of FOIA and may be dealt with as a contempt of court.