London Borough of Southwark

The complainant has requested information from London Borough of Southwark (“the Council”) regarding switching heating at a specific property to prepay from May 2018 onwards. The Council withheld some of the information citing section 40(2) of FOIA – personal data and section 42 of FOIA – Legal Professional Privilege. Upon review of the complaint, the Commissioner advised the Council that the second part of the complainant’s request (which was submitted during the request for an internal review) should have been handled as a new request for information, as it was not part of the original request. The Commissioner’s decision is that the Council was entitled to rely on section 40(2) of FOIA to withhold the requested information in relation to the complainant’s original request. The Commissioner does not require the public authority to take any further steps.