Shropshire Council

The complainant requested information held by Shropshire Council (the council) about changes made to a local bus service. The council said that it did not hold the specific information requested by the complainant. The Commissioner’s decision is that the council holds a small amount of information that falls within scope of the complainant’s request. Whilst he considers that this information was reasonably accessible to the public at the time that the request was received, this was no longer the case by the end of the statutory time period that the council should have dealt with the request (20 working days). However, the Commissioner is satisfied that the council still held this information, and it should therefore have been provided to the complainant in response to their request. The Commissioner considers that, on the balance of probabilities, the council does not hold any other information falling within scope of the complainant’s request. As the council failed to confirm to the complainant that it holds information relevant to the request, and did not provide a copy of this information within the statutory 20 working days, the Commissioner has found a breach of section 1, and section 10 of FOIA, respectively. The Commissioner requires the council to provide the complainant with a copy of the timetable that was considered during the discussions held between the council and the bus operator about changes to the relevant bus service.