London Borough of Lambeth

The complainant has requested information about a stock transfer agreement between the London Borough of Lambeth (“the Council”) and a housing association. The the Council stated that it did not hold information within scope of the request.  The Commissioner’s decision is that the Council holds information within scope of part [1] of the request, as information captured by this part of the request has already been provided to the complainant outside of the EIR. He also finds that the searches conducted by the Council when responding to the request were inadequate for the purposes of claiming that it did not hold any information within scope of the remainder of the request. Further, the Commissioner finds that the Council breached regulation 11 of the EIR by failing to provide an internal review outcome within 40 working days.

The Commissioner requires the Council to take the following steps to ensure compliance with the legislation:

•    conduct searches aimed at identifying all of the information it holds within scope of all parts of the request and either disclose this information to the complainant or issue them with a refusal notice that complies with the EIR.
•    with regard to the information already in the complainant’s possession, the Council must either disclose this information under the EIR or issue the complainant with a valid refusal 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.