Newby & Scalby Town Council

The complainant requested a copy of a report from Newby and Scalby Town Council (“the Council”) about how the Council had managed a charitable grant. The Council has withheld the whole report under both section 32 of FOIA (court records, etc.) and section 40(2) of FOIA (personal information). The Commissioner’s decision is that: The Council is not entitled to rely on section 32 to withhold any information within the report; The Council is entitled to withhold only a small amount of information within the report under section 40(2). The Commissioner requires the Council to take the following steps to ensure compliance with the legislation: Disclose the report, except for the following information which can be withheld under section 40(2) and therefore should be redacted: all names and initials of individuals, the first sentence of the final paragraph on page six of the report (which is page seven of the PDF document), the final six words of the penultimate sentence in the third paragraph on page ten of the report (which is page eleven of the PDF document).