Monmouthshire County Council

The complainant has requested, from Monmouthshire County Council (the Council), certain financial information in respect of a specified financial year. The Council provided some information, however the complainant wanted further detail about the “functions” or services provided by contractors or suppliers (ie what, exactly, they had been paid to do – “the functions that the public are paying for”). The Council cited section 12 of FOIA (‘cost of compliance’) to refuse to comply with the request for that information. The Commissioner’s decision is that the Council was correct to refuse to comply with the request, on the basis of section 12 of FOIA. However, the Commissioner also finds that the Council didn’t comply with its obligations under section 16 of FOIA (‘advice and assistance’). The Commissioner requires the Council to provide the complainant with advice and assistance to help them to refine the request of 6 March 2024 such that it falls within the cost limit, or if the request can’t be meaningfully refined, explain why this is the case. The public authority must take these steps within 30 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 FOIA and may be dealt with as a contempt of court.