Forestry Commission England
- Date 18 October 2022
- Sector Central government
- Decision(s) EIR 12.4.a: Not upheld, EIR 14.3: Upheld, EIR 5.2: Upheld
The complainant has requested information about badger culling on Forestry Commission England (FC) land. Forestry England (FE), an Agency of the Forestry Commission (FC), initially provided an unclear refusal notice that suggested that regulation 12(5)(a)(public safety) of the EIR applied. At review, FC accepted that its refusal notice had not met EIR requirements and cited regulation 12(4)(a) of the EIR (information not held at the time of the request). The Commissioner’s decision is that FC has now produced sufficient evidence that, on the balance of probabilities, it does not hold the requested information and that it cited regulation 12(4)(a) appropriately. However, FC has breached regulation 5(2) and regulation 14(3) of the EIR. The Commissioner does not require FC to take any further steps.