South Hams District Council

The complainant has requested from South Hams District Council (‘the Council’) information about financial penalties relating to the performance of a waste management contract. The Council refused to disclose the information, citing regulation 12(5)(e) (Confidentiality of commercial or industrial information) of the EIR. The Commissioner’s decision is that the Council was not entitled to rely on regulation 12(5)(e) of the EIR to refuse the request. He also finds that it did not comply with regulation 11(4) of the EIR when asked to conduct an internal review. The Commissioner requires the Council to disclose the total value of compensation paid to the Council by the waste management contractor (the figure to include any monies “clawed back” by the Council by way of deductions it made from its contractual payments and any payments made by the contractor).