Honiton Town Council

In two requests the complainant has requested information about a particular dispute. Honiton Town Council (‘the Council’) withheld the majority of the information as it considered it attracted legal professional privilege. The Council advised it does not hold some of the requested information, advised other relevant information was already in the public domain and advised that elements of one of the requests were vexatious because of the disproportionate burden of complying with them. The Commissioner’s decision is as follows: At the time of the requests, the Council had correctly applied section 42(1) of FOIA to information it withheld within scope of parts 1, 2 and 3 of Request 1 and part 2 of Request 2.  This information attracted legal professional privilege and the public interest favoured maintaining this exemption. On the balance of probabilities, the Council does not hold the discrete risk assessment that the complainant requested and its response to part 1 of Request 2 complied with section 1(1)(a) of FOIA. The Council incorrectly applied section 14(1) of FOIA (vexatious request) to parts 4 and 5 of Request 1. The Council’s responses to the requests did not comply with section 10(1) of FOIA and its refusal of elements of both requests did not meet the requirements of sections 17(1) and 17(5). The Commissioner requires the Council to take the following step to ensure compliance with the legislation: Provide the complainant with a fresh response to part 4 and 5 of Request 1 that complies with FOIA and that does not rely on section 14(1).