Shropshire Council

The complainant made a two-part request for information, part one was regarding an Enforcement Notice issued by Shropshire Council (the Council), part two was regrading foul water drainage. The Council refused to confirm or deny whether it held information for part one under regulation 13(5)(a) (personal data) of the EIR. It disclosed some information with regard to part two and applied regulation 12(3) to the rest. The Commissioner’s decision is that the public authority was entitled to rely on regulation 13(5) of the EIR as the basis for neither confirming nor denying whether it held the requested information. However, it breached regulation 5(2) of the EIR as it failed to respond within 20 working days. The Commissioner also found that on the balance of probabilities, the Council disclosed all other information it held within the scope of the request. The Commissioner does not require any steps to be taken as a result of this decision.