Bassetlaw District Council

The complainant has requested information about a planning application. Bassetlaw District Council (‘the Council’) applied section 21 of FOIA (information accessible to applicant by other means) to the information it holds, and which is published on its website. The Council confirmed that it holds no further relevant information. The Commissioner’s decision is as follows: The requested information is environmental information which the Council should have considered under the EIR. However, on the balance of probabilities, the Council holds no further information within scope of the request and regulation 12(4)(a) of the EIR is engaged. As the Council wrongly handled the request under FOIA, the Commissioner has found there to have been a breach of regulation 14 of the EIR. The Commissioner does not require the Council to any corrective steps. First-tier tribunal (General Regulatory chamber) information rights appeal EA/2022/0123 under appeal.