London Borough of Haringey

The complainant contacted the London Borough of Haringey (the ‘Council’) and requested all correspondence referring to them and the land behind their property following a letter from the Council in relation to an extension of the boundary at the rear of their property. The Council initially applied section 40(1) (requesters own personal information) and section 42 (Legal Professional Privilege) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (‘FOIA’) to the request. During the course of the Commissioner’s investigation the Council reconsidered the request under the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (the ‘EIR’) and confirmed it was relying on regulation 5(3) in respect of the complainant’s own personal data. It also cited regulation 12(4)(e) (internal communications) for the bulk of the withheld information, and cited regulation 13 (third party personal information) for some limited information. The Commissioner’s decision is that the Council is entitled to rely on regulations 5(3) and 13(1) of the EIR and the Council correctly applied regulation 12(4)(e) to all but one email. However, the Council breached regulation 11(4) (representations and reconsideration) as it failed to meet the required timescales in providing its internal review.