Basingstoke & Deane Borough Council

The complainant requested information about concerns they had raised about unlicensed dumping and burning of mixed waste at a particular site. Basingstoke and Dean Borough Council (the Council) initially withheld the information requested under regulation 12(5)(b) (course of justice) of the EIR. In its internal review the Council withdrew its reliance on regulation 12(5)(b) of the EIR and disclosed the information requested, subject to some information being redacted under regulation 13 (personal data) of the EIR. During the course of the Commissioner’s investigation, the Council disclosed some of the information it had originally withheld, as it constituted the complainant’s own personal data. The Council continued to withhold the remaining information under regulation 13 of the EIR. The complainant considered that the Council held additional information relevant to the request, other than the documents disclosed and was unhappy with the information that the Council had redacted from the documents it disclosed. The Commissioner’s decision is that, on the balance of probabilities, the Council does not hold any additional information falling within the scope of the request. The Commissioner also finds that the Council correctly applied regulation 13 to the information it redacted from the documents disclosed. The Commissioner does not require any steps to be taken.