Kent County Council

The complainant has requested information held by Kent County Council (the council) relating to a planning application and subsequent planning appeal. The council provided the complainant with some information, but advised that it had withheld pre-application advice under the exemption at section 43(2) (commercial interests) of FOIA. At the internal review stage, the council confirmed that it now considered the EIR to be the correct access regime, and that it was relying on the exception at regulation 12(5)(d) (confidentiality of proceedings) as its basis for withholding the pre-application advice. At a late stage of the Commissioner’s investigation, the council revised its position, and said that it now considered that the pre-application advice did not fall within scope of the complainant’s request. Whilst the Commissioner considers that the EIR is the correct access regime, he considers that the council failed to obtain the correct objective reading of the request. The Commissioner is satisfied that the request does cover the pre-application advice, and has decided that the council is not entitled to rely on regulation 12(5)(d) to withhold this information. He therefore now requires the council to disclose this information. The Commissioner has also found a breach of regulation 14 as the council failed to respond to the request within the statutory time period.