Cotham School

The complainant requested information from Cotham School (“the School”) relating to communications between the School and Bristol City Council regarding a planning application. The Commissioner’s decision is that the School has failed to carry out adequate searches for the requested information and therefore, on the balance of probabilities, has not identified all information held within the scope of the request. The Commissioner requires the School to take the following steps to ensure compliance with the legislation. The School must issue a fresh response to the request following searches aimed at identifying all the information held within the scope of the request. The School 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. First-tier Tribunal (General Regulatory Chamber) Information Rights appeal EA/2022/0289 appeal withdrawn.