Warrington Borough Council

The complainant requested information about dog breeding and pet selling licences issued to a specific breeder. Warrington Borough Council (the “council”) refused the request under the exemptions for personal information (section 40(2)) and commercial interests (section 43(2)). The Commissioner’s decision is that the council wrongly applied section 40(2) to the information and that, whilst the exemption in section 43(2) is engaged, the public interest favours disclosing the information. The Commissioner requires the council to disclose the licences specified in part 1 of the request.