North Kesteven District Council

The complainant has requested for a copy of a Deed of Variation (the deed) between North Kesteven District Council (the council) and Greenwich Leisure Limited (GLL). The council refused to provide the information citing section 43(2) of FOIA (commercial interests). The Commissioner’s decision is that he does not consider that all of the information contained in the deed could be withheld under section 43(2) of FOIA. He considers that information contained in the schedules and the annexes engages section 43(2) of FOIA and the balance of the public interest lies in favour of maintaining the exemption. The Commissioner requires the council to take the following steps to ensure compliance with the legislation. Disclose page 1 to 7 of the deed.  The public authority must take these steps within 30 calendar days of the date of this decision notice. Failure to comply may result in the Commissioner making written certification of this fact to the High Court pursuant to section 54 of the Act and may be dealt with as a contempt of court.