Plymouth City Council

The complainant submitted a three-part request for information held by Plymouth City Council (the council) about a Muse concert which took place at a local football club stadium. The council provided some information to the complainant in response to part two and three of their request. However, it withheld all the information contained within a hire agreement which was relevant to part one of the request, citing the exemption at section 43(2) – commercial interests - of FOIA. The Commissioner’s decision is that the council is entitled to rely on section 43(2) as its basis for withholding only part of the information contained within the hire agreement. The Commissioner has also proactively applied section 40(2) of FOIA to a small set of information, which is the personal data of third parties. As the council failed to provide information relevant to the request within 20 working days, the Commissioner has found a breach of section 10(1) of FOIA. In addition, as the council failed to issue a refusal notice in respect of part one of the request within the statutory time limit, and failed to set out its consideration of the public interest test, both in its initial response and in its internal review response, the Commissioner has found a breach of section 17(1) and section 17(3) of FOIA, respectively. The Commissioner requires the council to disclose a copy of the withheld information with the exception of that information which is subject to the exemptions at section 43(2) and section 40(2) of FOIA, as highlighted within the confidential annex attached to this decision notice.