South Lakeland District Council

The complainant has requested information about enforcement action taken by South Lakeland District Council (‘the Council’) in respect of a breach of planning that he had reported. The Council refused the request on the grounds that the information was exempt from disclosure under sections 36 (Prejudice to effective conduct of public affairs), 40 (Personal information) and 41 (Information provided in confidence) of FOIA. The Commissioner’s decision is that some of the information was the complainant’s own personal data and was exempt from disclosure under section 40(1) of FOIA. The Council was entitled to rely on sections 36(2)(b)(i) and (ii) to refuse the remaining parts of the request. However, by failing to respond to the request within 20 working days, the Council breached sections 1, 10 and 17 of FOIA. The Commissioner requires no steps as a result of this decision.