Oxford City Council

The complainant requested information about a Covered Market Roof Refurbishment. Oxford City Council (the “council”) disclosed some information and withheld other information under the FOIA exemption for commercial interests (section 43(2)). The council subsequently reconsidered the request under the EIR, disclosed some information, and refused to provide the outstanding information under the exception for manifestly unreasonable (regulation 12(4)(b)). The Commissioner’s decision is that the council initially wrongly handled the request under the FOIA and breached regulation 5(1) and regulation 14(1) of the EIR but that it correctly applied regulation 12(4)(b) to refuse to provide the requested information. The Commissioner does not require the council to take any steps.