East West Railway Company Limited

The complainant has requested a copy of a report referred to in an appendix to another report. East West Railway Company Ltd (EWR) stated this report was in fact an early draft of the published report and its title changed before publication. As such it identified two early drafts (version 3 and 4) that carried the name Affordable Connections Project Report and considered these should be withheld under Regulation 12(4)(d) EIR. The Commissioner’s decision is that the information does engage regulation 12(4)(d) as it relates to draft documents. He finds the public interest favours disclosure of version 3 of the report but that the balance of public interest for version 4 lies in withholding the information.  The Commissioner requires EWR to disclose version 3 of the Affordable Connections Project Report.