London Borough of Hackney Council

The complainant submitted a request to the London Borough of Hackney (the Council) seeking information on the Future Shoreditch Area Action Plan. The Council initially disclosed some information to the complainant before subsequently seeking to refuse the request on the basis of regulation 12(4)(b) (manifestly unreasonable). The Commissioner’s decision is that the Council can rely on regulation 12(4)(b) to refuse the request. However it breached the procedural requirements of regulations 14(2) (refusal notices) and 11(2) (internal reviews) in its handling of this request.