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London Borough of Islington

  • Date 7 February 2024
  • Sector Local government
  • Decision(s) EIR 11.4: Upheld, EIR 12.4.e: Partly upheld, EIR 12.5.e: Partly upheld, EIR 12.5.f: Partly upheld, EIR 13: Not upheld, EIR 5.2: Upheld

The requestor asked for information relating to the proposed women’s building to be constructed as part of the redevelopment of Holloway Prison. 
The London Borough of Islington (“the Council”) disclosed some information to the requestor but relied on regulation 12(4)(e) (internal communications), 12(5)(e) (commercially confidential), regulation 12(5)(f) (impact on provider) and regulation 13 (personal information) to withhold other parts of the requested information.
The Commissioner’s decision is that: 
• The Council incorrectly applied regulation 12(4)(e) to some of the withheld information.
• The Council incorrectly applied regulation 12(5)(e) to some of the withheld information.
• The Council incorrectly applied regulation 12(5)(f) to some of the withheld information.
• The Council correctly applied regulation 13 to some of the withheld information.
• On the balance of probabilities, the Council holds further information in scope of the request. 
Further, the Commissioner finds that the Council breached regulation 11(4) of the EIR as it did not fully provide its internal review outcome within 40 working days; and breached regulation 5(2) in respect of an emails disclosed to the requestor late, during the Commissioner’s investigation.
The Commissioner requires the Council to take the following steps to ensure compliance with the legislation:
• Disclose  the emails dated 10 and 18 September 2020 listed under number 11 on the spreadsheet provided by the Council on 23 January 2024 (the “Council Spreadsheet”)
• Disclose  the emails under number 2 on the Council Spreadsheet, except for the email dated 23 March 2023.
• Disclose the email dated 20 March 2023 contained in the emails numbered 4 in the Council Spreadsheet.
• Disclose  the email dated 19 February 2023 contained in the emails numbered 6 in the Council Spreadsheet.
• Carry out further searches for information in scope of the request.
The Council must take these steps within 35 calendar days of the date of this decision notice. Failure to comply may result in the Commissioner making written certification of this fact to the High Court pursuant to section 54 of the Act and may be dealt with as a contempt of court.