Department for Business and Trade

The complainant has requested information regarding deep sea mineral exploration licences. The department formerly known as the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (“BEIS”) relied on the exception at EIR regulation 12(5)(e) – confidentiality of commercial or industrial information. The Commissioner’s decision is that the public authority is entitled to rely on the exception to withhold the annual reports held by BEIS, which the Commissioner considers forms part of the requested information, and the public interest favours maintaining the exception. The Commissioner finds a breach of regulation 5(2) regarding the delay in responding to the request. The Commissioner does not require the public authority to take the any steps to ensure compliance with the legislation.