Cheshire East Council

The complainant has requested certain information held about land sold by Cheshire East Council (the council). The council provided some information to the complainant with its initial response to the request and then, during the Commissioner’s investigation, it identified and released some additional information. The council has refused part of the request, citing regulation 6(1)(b) of the EIR (The Environmental Regulations 2004); it states that the relevant information is publicly available from HM Land Registry. Whilst the Commissioner has decided that the request should have been considered under FOIA, rather than the EIR, he is satisfied that the council is entitled to rely on section 21 – information reasonably accessible to the requester, of FOIA, as its basis for refusing part of the complainant’s request. The Commissioner is satisfied that, on the balance of probabilities, the council has now released all of the relevant information held that is not exempt under section 21 of FOIA; however, as some of this information was provided to the complainant outside the statutory 20 working days, the Commissioner has found a breach of section 10(1) of FOIA.