Bristol City Council

The complainant requested information about decisions relating to traffic signage, speed limit changes and a speed camera on St John's Lane, Bristol. The Commissioner has investigated whether Bristol City Council (the “council”) holds further information within the scope of the request.During the Commissioner’s investigation, the council described the searches it had undertaken and subsequently carried out an eDiscovery search which identified a substantial volume of potentially relevant emails. The council then argued that reviewing those emails would be manifestly unreasonable under regulation 12(4)(b) of the EIR. The Commissioner’s decision is that the council has failed to demonstrate, on the balance of probabilities, that it identified and considered all information falling within the scope of the request. The Council therefore failed to comply with regulation 5(1) of the EIR. The Commissioner has made no finding on the council’s reliance upon regulation 12(4)(b).The council must issue a fresh response to the request under the EIR. In doing so it must undertake adequate searches for information falling within the scope of the request and either disclose information identified or issue a refusal notice compliant with regulation 14.