Lancashire County Council

The complainant requested information relating to care accommodation. Lancashire County Council (the council) initially refused parts 1 and 2 of the request under section 40(2) of the FOIA – third party personal data and stated no information was held within the scope of part 3. During the Commissioner’s investigation, the council updated its response to parts 1 and 2 of the request, citing section 14(1) (vexatious requests) of the FOIA as grounds for refusal. The Commissioner’s decision is that section 14(1) of the FOIA is engaged to parts 1 and 2 of the request and that, on the balance of probabilities, no information is held falling within the scope of part 3 of the request. The Commissioner does not require any steps.