Forestry Commission England

The complainant has requested information on access agreements for badger control between a named company and Forestry Commission England (FC). FC refused to provide the access agreements under regulation 12(5)(a) EIR – public safety. The Commissioner’s decision is that the information in the agreements, chiefly in the schedule, that provides maps, names of woodlands and specific details of boundaries of cull zones does engage regulation 12(5)(a) and the public interest favours maintaining the exception and withholding the information. For the remaining parts of the agreement the Commissioner does not find the information engages regulation 12(5)(a). The Commissioner requires FC to disclose the parts of the agreement that do not relate to locations, removing the address of the company as the complainant has agreed this is not needed.