London Borough of Lambeth

The complainant has requested a copy of a contract with Serco for waste management services. The London Borough of Lambeth (LBL) initially treated this as a request made in the normal course of business. After internal review, it disclosed a Schedule from the contract but argued that EIR regulation 12(5)(e) provided an exception from its duty to disclose the remainder of the contract. The Commissioner’s decision is that LBL is only entitled to rely on regulation 12(5)(e) in respect of information identified in a Confidential Annex to this Notice. The Commissioner requires LBL to take the following steps to ensure compliance with the legislation: Disclose that information in the requested contract which is not identified as excepted from the EIR duty to disclose in the Confidential Annex to this Notice. 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 the Act and may be dealt with as a contempt of court.