South Gloucestershire Council

The complainant has requested information about a particular planning application. South Gloucestershire Council (SGC) disclosed some information which fell outside of the scope of the request. At internal review, SGC said it held no other recorded information about the application. However, during the Commissioner’s investigation it located information falling within the scope of the request, which it refused to disclose, citing regulations 12(5)(f) (Interests of information provider) and 13(1) (Personal data) of the EIR. The Commissioner’s decision is that regulation 13(1) was properly engaged. However, by initially handling a request for environmental information under FOIA, SGC breached regulation 14(1) of the EIR.