Department for Transport

The complainant has requested information about the publication of the Network North project. The above public authority relied on section 36 of FOIA (undermining collective responsibility) to withhold the information. The Commissioner’s decision is that the public authority should have dealt with the request under EIR. It has correctly applied regulation 12(4)(e) of the EIR to parts 1, 2 and 3 of the request and the public interest favours maintaining this exception. The public authority is not entitled to apply regulation 12(4)(e) to parts 4 and 5 of the request. The Commissioner requires the public authority to take the following steps to ensure compliance with the legislation. Issue a fresh response to parts 4 and 5 of the request in accordance with the EIR.