Amber Valley Borough Council

The complainant requested environmental information from Amber Valley Borough Council (“the Council”) relating to a specified planning application. The council initially provided a response stating that the majority of the requested information is not held by it, however during the Commissioner's investigation, it disclosed a large volume of information to the complainant, responding to a number of different requests, and stated that this was the only information it holds. It said that any information not contained within this disclosure was not held by it. The Commissioner’s decision is that the council failed to comply with Regulation 5(1) of the EIR, by failing to make environmental information available on request and by failing to take reasonable steps to identify and retrieve information before concluding that it was not held. He has also decided that it failed to comply with Regulation 11(3) and Regulation 11(4), by failing to conduct an internal review and failing to communicate an internal review outcome within 40 working days. The Commissioner requires the council to take the following steps to ensure compliance with the legislation. For each individual part of the request, issue a fresh response in which it confirms or denies whether information is held, as per paragraphs 29-31 below. Any held information should either be disclosed, or a valid refusal notice issued detailing the exceptions which the council is relying upon for each part of the request.