Medway Council

The complainant requested information relating to funding provided for Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) to educational institutes. Medway Council (the Council) provided some information and stated that other information was exempt under sections 21 (information accessible to the applicant by other means) of the FOIA and section 43 (commercial interests). During the course of the Commissioner’s investigation the Council withdrew its reliance on section 43 and provided additional information. It maintained its reliance on section 21 of the FOIA but also stated that it considered section 12 (appropriate limit) of the FOIA to also apply to the information. The Commissioner’s decision is that the Council has failed to comply with section 1 of the FOIA as it has not identified the information falling within the scope of the request. The Commissioner also finds the Council incorrectly applied section 21 of the FOIA to information relating to the local authority area for each educational institution and section 12 of the FOIA is not engaged in respect of that information. The Commissioner requires the Council to conduct fresh targeted searches in order to correctly identify the recorded information held relevant to the request and either disclose the information or issue a valid refusal notice. In relation to the local authority area in which each school is based, any fresh response cannot rely on sections 12 or 21 of the FOIA in respect of any information held relevant to that part of the request.